Riders of the Archipelago
by Stormdragonrider
Summary: You've all heard of the Riders of Berk, but do you know the Riders of the Archipelago, the new generation of riders? Six Riders in training. Six Dragons. One Academy, and a whole world of new adventures. A sequel to Valka's Apprentice.
1. Prologue

**And we are back in action! You waited for it, you hoped for it, you put in your OCs for it, and you got it! Here is the Riders of the Archipelago!**

 **A quick note to those new people out there who have not read my previous story. This _IS_** **a sequel to my original one, so if you read this without reading the previous one, some things will not make sense to you. Probably. If you are one of those folks who don't care about that then, well...GO RIGHT AHEAD AND READ IT! I'M SURE YOU"LL HAVE FUN READING EITHER WAY!**

 **Without further ado, let us get on with the prologue.**

 **Enjoy**

* * *

 _With the defeat of Drago Bludvist, and the scattering of his army of criminals and malcontents, the Archipelago entered a new era of peace and prosperity._

 _As word spread of the warlords defeat, trappers across the world quit their trade, afraid that the one who defeated their leader would come for them too, should they continue. But at that time, Astrid was not up for hunting anyone down at that time._

 _She, along with the other dragon riders, had another objective in mind at time. Together, they all struck out to the assumed location of the dragon nest that was home to the Red Death, the dragon that had been plaguing Berk for centuries. But when they arrived at that volcanic island, they found it to be mysteriously abandoned, with only a few dragons left there. There were signs that other dragons, and the Red Death itself, had been there recently, but though they scoured the island, they could find only a few remaining dragons._

 _Since then, the dragon attacks on Berk, and many other surrounding islands, have ceased._

 _But there was still work to do when the dragon riders returned to Berk after many long years._

 _The dragons of the sanctuary had been destroyed, and it's inhabitants had been left without a home. With all those dragons under their care, Valka, Astrid, and Hiccup decided to try and integrate those dragons into Berkian society, wanting nothing more than to show the people of their island how much could be learned and gained from friendship with dragons._

 _It was not easy. There was much anger and pain from both sides, with the war so fresh in many minds. Dragons and Vikings were both opposed to the idea of living in close proximity with each other, and many, many times, things nearly broke out into violence once again._

 _But over time, things began to smooth out. A Dragon Academy was officially created to help humans and dragons get to know each other better, to learn from one another, and to grow more comfortable with one another._

 _Year after year, more and more Vikings of Berk went to the academy to learn what it had to offer, and as they told their friends, even more came, and the dragon riders were all too happy to accept them. Pretty soon, everyone on Berk had dragons of their own, with only a few grouches still wishing to hold onto the old ways._

 _In short, here we are, eighteen years after the defeat of Drago, life on Berk has never been better, and a new adventure is about to begin._

 _For in this new class, everything is about to change._

 _Nearly everyone on Berk who is of age has learned what they wish from the academy already. There is no one left to teach save those too young to begin their formal training. So this class, unlike any other, is made of students no just from Berk._

 _Six teenagers from the furthest reaches of the Archipelago, who, by chance, skill, or sheer luck, managed to become fledgling riders, and are now set to enter Berk's Dragon Academy, to learn what it means to be full dragon riders._

 _Six riders, destined for far more than the life of ordinary Vikings._

 _Their names?_

 _Lana Bystrom, and her dragon Skylark_

 _Aurora Haraldsson and her dragon Nightsound_

 _Baldor Odinson and his dragon Krotr_

 _Hax Kaspersen and his dragon Sunflower_

 _Avrak Swiftfoot and his dragon Ziza_

 _And as for the final student…the only one attending who is actually from Berk._

 _Well, you'll learn about him in a bit…_

 _What, you want to know who it is now? Ok fine, here he is. The hero of our story._

 _Aydrien Destin Haddock the First. First born of Astrid and Hiccup Haddock, and next in line to be chief of Berk. Yup they had kids. It's been a while._

 _Anyways, let's get on with the story. As you probably already know…_

* * *

… _This is Berk._

 _Of course, you have probably heard that plenty of times before. We used to be just another island on the back end of the back end of nowhere, which was to say that we were not noticed very much. Since then, though, thing have changed…_

 _I'm one of the Berk's new generation. The one that was born after the dragon war, so I never really got to see what Berk was life before then, eighteen years ago. Of course, I've heard many a story of what life was like, but I've never know what it really is to be at war…_

 _But I'm getting ahead of myself. You're lucky to be on Berk this particular day, as today is the day where, once every year, we hold a very unique event, one that you cannot find anywhere else in the Archipelago._

The village of Berk was strangely silent that sunny morning. Normally at that hour, people would be going about their business, each doing their own individual jobs that made the village function as a whole. Yet, there was not a Viking to be seen throughout the streets.

But there were several bleating, confused sheep wandering the village…

 _There is plenty of build up for this event, and every year, dozens of contestants enter. It's a championship of sorts, though today, of all the days, is the time when you want to be the one participating. You see, today is the final, where this year's champion will be crowned…_

One particular group of sheep, bleating nervously, scurried across the central plaza in a tight group, their eyes fixed on the sky above them. They could hear the beating of wings, though the sound seemed directionless, or coming from several directions at once…

Of course, only one of the sheep in that group needed to worry. And that was the one with the target painted across its side…

 _Only the best of the best make it to this point, the ones who train year round for this event, for it is a sport like no other. Some people might call it crazy…_

Several shadows raced over the village, faster than the eye could follow. The sheep froze for a second before the continued their nervous scramble across the open ground to find cover…

… _some people call it insane…_

A rumbling roar of triumph resounded, the sound of a dragon spotting it's target…

… _but us. We call it…._

The targeted sheep bleated in surprise as something huge scooped it clean off the ground and swept it into the air…

… _DRAGON RACING!_

Half a dozen raced out over the rooftops of the village, then over a crowd of roaring Vikings, each cheering for their particular favorite racer. Of those half a dozen racers, no two dragons they rode were the same. Leading the pack was the a big red Thunderpede, followed closely by two nadders, one sky blue and the other dark red. A green monstrous nightmare came next, then a spotted snafflefang, and a blue gronckle brought up the rear. The man in the lead, the large, bulky man on the thunderpede, held the poor sheep, a smug grin on his face, for with this sheep, he would be way in the lead. There was still the black sheep to consider at the end of the race, but he was confident that he would get that too.

 _That guy is Asmund Adolfson, the reigning champion of the Dragon Racing tournament for three years straight. But that is only because the true champion was too busy too busy to compete in years past. But this year, he's going to lose his win streak. Cause the true champion is here to steal his crown._

One of the nadders shot under the belly of Asmund's Thunderpede, then swooped straight upwards to appear in front of him. Startled by the sudden appearance of the other dragon in front, the Thunderpede ground itself to a halt mid-air.

With the sudden stop, Asmund lost his grip on the sheep, and if flew from his hands into the arms of the Nadder rider.

 _Yup, that's her. The true champion._

The sky blue nadder did a complete flip over in mid-air and swoop over to the scoring nest. Hanging upside down in her saddle, the rider simply had to drop her cargo inside.

 _Astrid Hofferson Haddock, chieftess of Berk, headmistress of the Dragon Academy, and probably the second most experienced dragon rider in the world._

Astrid let out a whoop of delight as she soared over the stands full of roaring Vikings, pausing only long enough to blow a kiss to the man sitting in the ornate chief's chair. He smiled at her in return, and waved in encouragement.

 _That guy there in the Chief's seat is Hiccup Haddock the Third, current chief of Berk. Obviously, since he is in the Chief spot. Anyways, ever since Stoick the Vast retired, he's been in charge of Berk, and lots of people would agree that he's changed it for the better. Thanks to him and Astrid, Berk is now equal parts home to dragons and humans._

 _Of course, there is a downside to having such a famous and prestigious couple married. After all, married folk have children, and those children feel like they have the responsibility of living up to their parent's accomplishments, or else they are lost in their parent's shadow._

 _Hiccup and Astrid have two children. One is a girl, age twelve and a half, named Erica._

 _And the other child…is me. Aydrien Destin Haddock, fifteen years old , and next in line as chief of Berk. With the most accomplished parents you could find anywhere in the world, and the highest standards any kid should ever have to meet. Of course, my mom and dad say that I don't have to prove anything to them, but it's not them I'm trying to prove something too. In fact, they are some of the only people that don't expect more out of me than I can realistically do._

 _My mom and dad love me for who I am. Everyone else seems to love me for who my parents are. One might say I feel a little bit pressured._

 _Anyways, I would be here at the Dragon Races today, but since I'm not old enough to compete, I don't generally show up, even for the final round. I can guess with full confidence who is going to win this year, and so instead of watching, I'm killing some time with my pal Titan…_

* * *

"Ok, wrist-grappling line test ninety-two. I'm sure it will work this time" Aydrien said, with perhaps a little bit more confidence than was warranted as he braced his feet, squared himself with a huge tree and extended one arm forwards.

At the age of fifteen, Aydrien was almost a smaller image of his father, Hiccup, though where his father had been awkward at his fifteen, Aydrien was simply eccentric. In looks, Aydrien definitely favored his dad, the more rounded face, touch blond in his dusty brown hair, and blue eyes definitely spoke of his mother's side. In personality, he was said to have exactly half and half from both parents. Form his mother, he got his single-minded dedication and direct-approach attitude, whereas from his dad, he got his creativity and lust for adventure and finding out new things.

And of course, from both his parents, he got the attitude of 'Anything worth doing is worth giving everything you got. Or it's not worth doing.'

That one was actually more of something he had acquired than something he had been born with, but, well, Aydrien had taken it to heart.

What made Aydrien stand out the most, however was his sense of fashion, or rather, lack there of. No son of Hiccup Haddock went anywhere without at least a dozen whacky gadgets attached all over his outfit. Having taken a que from his father's flight suit, Aydrien had set out to create an even more multi-purpose suit.

Which was one of the reasons he was here today.

"You ready, Titan?" Aydrien called.

A rumbling snort came from the direction of Aydrien's dragon, not so much a response as a sound of annoyance that his nap had been interrupted.

"Suit yourself, bro." Aydrien called "It _will_ work this time. You'll see."

Titan made no sound of response this time, and his silence spoke volumes.

Aydrien sighed. _Thanks for the encouragement._

He made sure he set his feet again properly, and aimed his right arm straight for one of the lower branches on the tree he was facing. On his wrist was mounted his latest contraption, a device that would propel a grapple and a line out to wrap around a target, then retract and pull it towards him. Granted, it wasn't exactly a new invention, for his father had already made a similar device that fit nicely inside a shield, but the design Aydrien had created was a lot more compact and easier to carry around than a bulky shield.

Still, this was the ninety second design. That meant it hadn't worked ninety one times before, and the chances of it working _this_ time…

Aydrien shook his head, as if to clear the doubts from his mind, the press the trigger on his wrist.

Off went the hook, the line trailing gracefully behind it as it arched through the air. It went over and past the branch Aydrien was aiming for, then fell across it, winding itself around till the hook was securely attached to the tree.

"It worked! Did you see that, boy, it worked! Now, for the next paAAARRRT!"

Aydrien's sentence was cut off as he push the button that would cause the line to retract and snapt the branch off of the tree, and it turn out that that branch was considerably more sturdy that Aydrien had anticipated. Instead, of pulling it towards him, it pulled _him_ towards _it._ And none too gently either.

Aydrien was actually swept off of his feet and sent flying towards the tree.

There was a burst of pain in his head, and everything went dark.

* * *

He woke up ten minutes later with a large bruise and a searing headache. And standing over him, with an expression that could only be described as positively smug, was Titan, his dragon.

Titan let out a snort, and there was only a single phrase to describe the look on his dragon's face.

 _I told you so._

Despite his name, there was nothing particularly large about Titan. He was a Shield Glider dragon, a distant cousin to the more aggressive and vicious razorwhips, which only grew to be a little larger than his dad's night fury. They both shared the metallic, reflective scales and barbed tail with their razorwhip counterparts. But there, the similarities ended. Shield glider's were of a stockier build, and a more arrow shaped snout, lacking the horn protruding from the tip of their nose. Their wings were also larger, relative to their body, and also served as their primary defense mechanism, for the outer faces of those wings were tougher than iron shields, able to deflect, swords, axes, and arrows with relative ease. A more defensively orientated version of the razorwhip, one might say. What they lacked in sharp edges and viciousness they made up for in their impregnability.

Of it wasn't physical features that gave Titan his name, but rather his personality, specifically his ego. Titan never failed to respond to an insult. He never failed to have the last word in any argument.

And he never, ever, _ever,_ missed a chance to rub something in someone's face when they screwed up. Just like he was doing right now.

"You know, maybe you could get a girlfriend if you were not this smug all the time." Aydrien said.

Titan cocked his head, his expression turning to innocence, as if he did not understand.

Aydrien sighed again. Whatever they said to one another (or rather, what Aydrien said to his dragon), they both knew it was just harmless banter. They were really best of friends, after all, and they did nearly everything together. Granted, Titan didn't talk, Aydrien could understand him enough to get at least rudimentary messages out of the shield glider.

Coming from a family of dragon riders had its perks.

"Well, I know what you are thinking, but I'd say that that experiment was a success. So long as I just ease up on the tension of the pull a bit, I should be able to make it so I don't get pulled towards anything I get attached too, and I we will be good to go! What do you say."

Titan huffed, then rolled his eyes. He didn't really understand why his human loved dabbling in those ridiculous gadgets, especially when they were obviously so dangerous. If he kept this up, Titan would be looking or a new rider before long.

Not a pleasant prospect.

"Alright then" Aydrien continued, winding the grappling cord back up into the wrist shooter. "Back to the shop it is."

* * *

But Aydrien never made it back to his shop at the forge, where he liked to tinker and toy with all the gadgets he made. He was halted in the middle of the village plaza, nearly crashing into great-uncle Gobber along the way. He told Aydrien that his parents wanted to see them to moment he got back.

That sounded a bit ominous. If his parents had wanted to talk with him about something, they probably would have just waited until he came home for dinner and bed that evening, only a few hours away. Whatever it was that they wanted, it had to be urgent.

And so, Aydrien and Titan swung round, making a beeline for the Haddock household.

For the family of a chief, it was not a very prominent or outstanding house-which was to say, it looked pretty similar to all the other houses on Berk, both in size and basic design. In some other tribes he had visited on official business with his family, Aydrien had seen many chief's houses that were far more ornate and furnished than those of their people, a measure of their status and wealth. But his parents were not like that. Being chief didn't make his father feel like he was better or deserved more than anyone else in the village. Astrid held a similar view, and lots of people said it spoke well of the.

Aydrien opened the door and walked inside.

The house might have been a tad small for a family of four, plus Stormfly, Toothless, and Titan, but it made up for it in coziness. Berk was cold year round, and so there was almost always a fire blazing within the small hearth at the corner. The main floor was divided neatly into a living room and a dining area, while the upstairs had all of their bedrooms.

Currently, Aydrien's parents were both sitting quietly the dining room table, and they both turned immediately upon hearing the door open.

"Aydrien" his dad said, his voice calm, relaxed, and even, giving away nothing "Can we talk to you."

Aydrien bid his dragon good-bye as he closed the door behind him and moved to take a seat at the table. He could tell immediately that his parent's had not called him because he was in trouble. In fact, they each seemed to be wearing a ghost of a smile, as if waiting to unveil some big surprise.

"Aydrien" his mother began. "We wanted to talk to you about this sooner, but we didn't know whether it would all work out at first. As you know, every year, I take in students to train at the Dragon Academy."

"Ok" Aydrien responded tentatively. He had come up with several theories as to why his parents had wanted to see him, but he was drawing a blank on this one.

"This year, we are doing something different. Every year before I've just been teaching students who are from Berk, right? So this year, were taking on students from _other_ islands. They all have dragons of their own, but they are all still fairly inexperienced."

"And… you want me to help train them, or something?" Aydrien guessed.

His mom laughed.

"No, Aydrien. We want you to be part of the class."

Aydrien's mouth dropped open.

"Bu…what? I kinda thought….you, know, with you guys as parent, that I could…you know."

"Skip your training." Hiccup chuckled. "Well, you mother and I talked about it, and we thought it would be good for you. It's true, you will probably are going to be ahead of the other students to start out, but there is a lot you don't know that you could be better taught while with a group. Also, you are fifteen now, and Odin knows what is going to happen if we leave you to your own devices for too long."

"And" Astrid added "it's going to be with kids around your age. It'll be fun."

Aydrien wasn't so sure. Despite what he said, he knew that there was lots about dragons he had yet to learn, and he wanted to learn more from his mother, one of the greatest dragon masters alive. Reading the book of dragons was one thing, but getting first-hand experience at the academy was a whole different matter. Especially since the Book of Dragons never seemed to be up to date anymore.

Still, the idea of working with other kids his age was…less than reassuring. He was great with really young kids, and could handle himself decently in front of other adults, but with teenagers? That was definitely a whole other story. He had never meshed will with the other boys of his village, and, Odin forbid there be teenaged _girls_ in the class.

Aydrien was confident about his skills in lots of things, but when it came to girls, he was pretty hopeless.

"If it really makes you uncomfortable, we won't force it on you" Hiccup said, seeing Aydrien's hesitation "But we want you to give it some honest thought. It's a great chance to make friends with people your own age. It doesn't start till a week from now, so you have some time to think about it."

Astrid and Hiccup were smart parent. They knew if they didn't try to force the design upon Aydrien, or didn't try to make it for him, he would be more likely to accept. That was the way with the stubborn Vikings of Berk, after all. The more you pushed them, the more Aydrien pushed back.

So they didn't mention it for the next several days. They knew Aydrien was not the kind to act rashly when time was given for him to think.

And so, Astrid was not surprised when Aydrien approached her two days later, saying he would join the new class, or at least try it out for a little while.

Aydrien was just hoping he wasn't going to make an embarrassing mistake.

* * *

On an island not so far away, a single figure stood, staring in the direction of Berk. Though she could not see it, she knew where it was, and she was eager to be there soon. There was little she wished to hold onto from the past.

A low, gently growl came from the direction of her camp. It was bestial, but friendly in an odd sort of way

"Hush, Nightsound. I'll be there in a second."

The girl breathed in the cold night air, then let herself slowly exhale, a grin stretching across her face.

"Hope your ready, Dragon Academy. Cause I'll bet you've never had a student like me before…"

Still, a tiny part of her was nervous at the prospect of going back into civilization. She had been forced to leave the place she had called home, and had been wandering ever since. Now, it seemed as if those days of wandering were at an end.

Aurora just hoped she was not making a mistake.

* * *

 **And there we have it. Prologue of over 4000 words! I'm just on fire this week with how much writing I'm putting out, compared to what I normally do. Granted, for some people that kinda thing is average, or less than average for a chapter.**

 **I would also like to mention that I want to get the audience more involved in this story than the last one. I have already asked for OCs a while back to use as the main characters, but I want to take it a little bit further. I still have all the OCs who were not used, maybe to make guest appearances, and I would absolutely love if you guys came up with ideas for new dragons that could be used. Unlike the last story, this one is going to be in a more 'episode like' fashion, as in there will be a series of smaller adventures that fit together in a bigger picture, similar to a TV show. SO if you have an idea for an OC, human or dragon, or even one for a unique 'episode' send it in, and I will see about fitting them into the story.**

 **Review, follow, and favorite, and as always, have a good one.**


	2. Prologue 2

**Another sort of prologue, introduction chapter to the story. Don't worry if it seems like there is little character development for the riders in the beginning. I can only put so much in one chapter, and I have plenty to say about each character. I plan for each rider to have entire chapters devoted to them and their dragon, so it's all going to come along in due time.**

 **Anyways, without further ado, enjoy!**

* * *

Aydrien was late. Very late. And for the first day of classes, no less.

Aydrien was usually an early riser, almost always the first one up in the house. That is, he was whenever he didn't have something to do in the morning. For some inexplicable, backwards reason, whenever he was _supposed_ to get up early for something in the morning, he ended up sleeping in.

And even though his mom was his teacher, she hadn't bothered to wake him up. Probably cause she would get a good laugh out of it he did finally show up for class.

And so, with his dad out doing chief stuff, it was left to Aydrien's twelve year old sister, Erica, to get him awake and out of bed. And Aydrien still had a headache from that experience.

Don't ask.

It would have been faster had Aydrien simply flown there on Titan, but it seemed as if his dragon was deliberately scheming with his mother on this one. When Aydrien had jumped on top of his dragons back, Titan had refused to move a muscle, but he happily loped along after him once Aydrien had started making his way on foot. Apparently, Titan wanted Aydrien to experience the full consequences of his mistake.

Stupid dragon.

Aydrien rounded one of the last few turns towards the academy, sprinted down the log bridge that separated him from the arena, and charged around towards the entrance. Just one more turn and…

WHAMM!

Oh man, Aydrien was in for it now. First day of class, and already, he had decked one of the other students. Running full tilt as he was, there was no way to avoid it, and the two of them tumbled down in a heap.

All of the other students had been brought in the night before, so his mother had told him, staying with various families of generous villages willing to house some strangers, at least for a little while. Aydrien had caught glimpses of the others, as well as their dragons, outside his bedroom window, but it had been dark out, and with no moon shining that night, it was impossible to make out any kind of details. He hadn't even been able to figure out any of the dragons they were riding.

He just hoped the dragon of this particular rider would not be inclined to eat him for practically flattening it rider.

"Hey! Do you mind watching where you're going, buddy. Not that I've never been attacked first thing in the morning, it would be nice to be able to get to school without being clobbered."

Just when Aydrien thought matters could get no worse. The voice… was a _girl's_ voice.

"I-I'm so-sorry. I-I was just… you know." Aydrien stuttered uncontrollably as he pushed himself off of the ground, which was a difficult task considering his limbs seemed to be fairly tangled with those of the girl he ran over, only adding to Aydrien's embarrassment.

They finally managed to extract themselves from each other and stood up, brushing the dust from themselves. Aydrien felt his cheeks had already gone red with embarrassment, and he wanted nothing more than to sprint away as fast as he possibly could, Dragon Academy be damned. But she had already seen him (he had made sure of that) and running away now would only make things worse if he saw her later. Better to face her now.

So Aydrien turned to face her and got his first good look at the girl he had slammed into.

She might have not been what Aydrien would call pretty (and he was most certainly _not_ thinking of her in that way) but she was certainly far from what he would call ugly. She was a shade taller the Aydrien, and her slim, muscular build and long blond hair reminded Aydrien of his mother somewhat, though the similarities stopped there. In the back, her hair was tucked into a somewhat messy ponytail, and the rest of it framed her face like a golden halo. A few strands hung teasingly in front of her left eye, probably knocked there with the crash, since she quickly brushed it out of her face.

Her outfit was almost as outrageous as Aydrien's suit of gadgets, for it consisted of several different shades of blue and green that overlapped each other. Blue leggings, green shorts, a blue skirt. A small cloak of what looked like animal fur was draped over one shoulder, and on her left wrist, several bracelets hung, glittering weakly in the sunlight. Finally, a thick belt wrapped around her waist, from which hung several pouches and what looked like a hunting knife.

But her eyes were what caught Aydrien's attention most, for they were not matching in color. One of her eyes, her left eye, was grassy green, and the other was dark blue. It was a bit unsettling, to say the least.

"Well good morning to you. Can't remember the last time I was introduced to someone like _that?_ I'm Aurora. How are you?"

Her voice was unexpectedly cheerful, given the circumstances. She didn't seem the least bit angry about how Aydrien had been 'introduced' to her.

"Ummm… h-hi. I'm Aydrien."

The girl, Aurora, arched an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Aydrien? Like, as in, son of the chief and master dragon riders Aydrien?"

Aydrein winced slightly at the mention of his parents but her nodded.

"Yup, that's me. The one and only."

"Well then" Aurora continued. "Very nice to meet you, although I'll be we will be seeing lots of each other for a good while. Your mother told me that you would be attending, so I figured I would see you once class started."

"Once class… Started? Wait" Aydrien said, his voice filled with confusion. "Are you saying that the classes _haven't started!"_

Now it was Aurora's turn to wear a confused look.

"No, I don't think so. Not unless they are starting somewhere other than the academy. Mrs. Haddock showed it to me last night, and I'm pretty sure she said we wouldn't be starting until tomorrow. Did that change on me?"

Aydrien slapped a hand across his forehead, suddenly realizing his mistake. He remembered his mom telling him that they would be starting in the morning on the days that they did have classes, but he only vaguely remembered his mom telling him that the first day after the other trainees arrived would be a day off for the, a day for them to explore and become familiar with the village.

There were no classes that day. No wonder his mom hadn't gotten him up this morning. Now he really felt stupid.

"No, nothing changed… Aurora. I just thought there were classes today, and I also thought I was way late. Woke up this morning and I was too tired to remember I guess."

The smile returned to Aurora's face.

"Oh, good. For a second, I thought it was me who was screwing up. Anyways, I guess I'll see you around." She said. She turned to walk away in the direction she had come.

"Wait!" Aydrien blurted. "Do…do you…nevermind."

Aurora gave him another confused look, the grinned, winked, and strode off, vanishing around the bend.

Aydrien stood rock still with a mystified expression on his face.

"Well" he said aloud "that…could have been a lot worse. What do you think?"

Aydrien turned to face his dragon.

Titan simply let a puff of smoke out of his nostrils, then grumbled low in his throat.

"Ya, I know what you mean. But you know, maybe the academy won't be so bad after all. I mean, how bad can all the others be.

Another grumble. Another puff of smoke.

Aydrien sighed.

"You talk a big talk for someone with hardly any friends. Come on. Let's go get some breakfast."

But even as he got on Titan's back and they flew off back to the Great Hall, Aydrien's thoughts went back to the conversation he had with Aurora, and a nagging thought came to mind. One that he mulled over, and kept mulling over, for many minutes afterword.

 _Why was it that she was at the academy if classes hadn't started? And if she is a dragon rider student, where was her dragon?_

* * *

Aydrien didn't end up seeing any of his other future classmates until dinner at the Great Hall. Perhaps it was that he had been tinkering in the shop all day, walling himself off in his own private area where he did what he found familiar and reassuring. After the incident this morning he wasn't so nervous about meeting the other riders, but he hoped he could go the rest of the day at least without looking like an idiot in front of one of his new classmates again.

And the easiest way to do that was to stay out of their way. After all, there would be plenty of time to get to know them later on.

Aydrien strode inside the massive doors of the great hall, his gaze immediately sweeping the building. He didn't see Aurora, but he did see his mom and dad already in the middle of dinner with his sister and two grandparents from his dad's side, Valka and Stoick. Each of their dragons lay dozing around the table, lazily snatching up any tiny morsel of food that managed to make its way off the table before it even hit the ground.

Aydrien just held the door held the door open long enough for Titan to come in, and then it hit him, quite literally, in fact. Or at least it would have, had his dragon not been looking out for him.

Titan grabbed Aydrien by the back of his shirt and pulled him out of the way of the door just as something flew by him, crashing through the doors and into the room. It was a person, crashing headfirst through the doors, and looking none too happy because of it.

They person couldn't stop themselves from sprawling out on the floor in a heap of flailing limbs, cursing all the way.

"ZIZA! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME!?" The person said, in a male voice.

The boy on the floor was peculiar looking as Aurora had been, though in in the same way. Practically his entire outfit consisted of furs, either snowy white or jet black, with some pieces having both colors. From neck to toe, the boy was completely bundled up in these furs, such to the point that the only features Aydrien could make out there the boyish face, pure black hair, and pale blue eyes. A pair of large goggles also looped around the back of his head and hung loosely around his neck.

They boy stood up, opened his mouth to shout something out the door again, and then seemed to notice Aydrien and Titan, standing only a few feet away.

"Oh, hello. Sorry for the scare and all. Don't worry, you'll get used to it. Just be happy that you are not one she is flinging through the door this time. By the way, I am Avrak, at your service." Arvak held out a hand to shake, which Aydrien shook.

"Umm, hi." Aydrien said tentatively "nice to meet you, I guess. And… who do you mean by she."

"Oh, right" Avrak turned back to the door way. "Ziza, someone in here wants to meet you. And there is food in here."

A huge, _furred_ head poked through the doorway.

It was a wooly howl, a rather rare species know for liking even colder climates than most dragons in the Archipelago did. As such, they usually lived closer to the north pull than most a Vikings or dragons could stand. Their thick coats of fur kept them warm even during the most vicious of seasons.

This one's particular fur coat, however, was different than most of its kind. Wooly howls, like most dragons, had a variety of different skin colors, which could vary from jet black to stark white and everywhere in between. Ziza, however, had a coat similar to Avrak's outfit. It was snow white covered in splotches of black, especially on very prominent dark spot that lay smack on top of her left eye. It reminded Aydrien of a large black bruise more than anything, but he kept that thought to himself.

"So, what's your name?" Avrak said cheerily.

"I'm Aydrien, and this is my dragon, Titan" he said, indicating his Shield Glider.

Avrak's face it up even more.

"Well, then a good to you, Aydrien. I've heard some stuff about you. Word is that we are going to be in the same dragon rider class. Have you met with the others yet?"

Aydrien shook his head.

"Well, I met one, but-"

"Then it's time you met the rest of them." Avrak interrupted heartily. "Come on, we're all meeting at that table over there. You can say hi to everybody, and then we'll all be ready to beat the snot out of each other by the time morning swings around. Let's go."

"Oh, and by the way" Avrak added as an afterthought. "I've already met them, and you should stay away from those two girls. They just met, and are as thick as thieves. And they neither of them are exactly right in the head either. Don't even want to tell you what that girl Aurora tried to do to me."

Aydrien frowned.

"Ummm. I talked to her this morning, and she seems nice enough."

"Oh, you'd think so wouldn't you?" Avrak replied in a superior tone. "Course, I barely got to say a word few words before she threatened to have me murdered. I couldn't tell whether she was serious about that or not."

"Well, what did you say to her?"

"Oh nothing, just a few words of hello, a few words of who are you, blah, blah, blah…"

"Hmmm. You weren't trying to flirt with her, by any chance? This girl you hardly knew?"

"What? No, no of cours not" Avrak replied quickly. A little bit too quickly, if Aydrien was to guess.

If there was one thing Aydrien had learned from his mother, it was that the easiest way to get a girl angry was to try and flirt with them when they didn't want to be flirted with. Last time someone had tried that with his mom, he had left with broken fingers. Granted, it was only one little remark about how he thought she was pretty, and granted, he probably would have held his remarks if he hadn't had so much to drink, so Astrid had only broken four fingers.

Aydrien just hoped, for his sake, Avrak's sake, and the sake of the village, that Aurora's temper was not as vicious as Astrid's was when she was younger.

And he thanked whatever gods where listening that he hadn't gotten on her bad side when he met her that morning.

* * *

Over all, dinner went rather well.

In total, there were six new riders in training, which included Aydrien. Avrak had already gotten to know each of them, and introduced them to Aydrien all in turn, though he made a point of staying away from Aurora, who sat at the far end of the table apparently taking no notice as the two boys approached the table and sat down. Besides, Aydrien had already met her.

And so the next rider Avrak introduced to was Hax, a simple boy if ever had Aydrien met one. He wore a simple green shirt with a brown vest over top, pants that looked to be on backwards, and a pair of boots that looked like they were not meant to go together.

At first, Aydrien wondered if Hax's round, childish face, curious, big eyes, and dimples were an accurate reflection of his personality, or if they were a reason someone might use to underestimate him. After only thirty seconds of conversation, however, Aydrien came to the conclusion that Hax's looks were definitely a representation of who he was. Or rather what he was.

Childish. Rash with words. None too bright.

That was nothing Aydrien hadn't seen before. There were many adult Vikings on Berk that could fit those criteria.

Next was Baldor, who barely even a 'hello' to Aydrein when he was introduced. The boy, in a word, seemed rather similar in some ways to Berk's barn house. Big, plain, and closed off. Balder's outfit was made up of simple blacks and browns, a fit match for his long, dark brown hair. His eyes, too were, dark brown, though, despite his brutish, brawny appearance, those eyes didn't reveal the malevolence of a low-minded bully. In fact, those eyes seemed rather friendly.

And last, near the end of the table, down where Aurora was sitting, was the last dragon rider, the other girl Avrak had mentioned, who went by the name Lana. Everywhere Aurora had been eccentric and wild in her looks, Lana was more refined, though no less unique. At first, the smattering of freckles across her face and big blue eyes gave her a similarly childish look that Hax had, but Aydrien soon found out that Lana didn't share the boy's simplicity. She wore a shirt, colored maroon and trimmed with brown fur at the top, bottom, and around the cuffs of the arms. Her boots reached almost all the way up to her knees, and were covered in soft white fur.

But perhaps the most peculiar thing about Lana was not about one of her features at all. It was the small, orange dragon that sat placidly on her shoulder, occasionally fidgeting and playing with her thick mass of long, brown hair. When Aydrien asked about it, smiled, as if she had heard the question often enough.

"This little guy here" She said, picking the small dragon of her shoulder and cradling it in her cupped hands "is Torch. He's my second dragon, and he isn't my riding dragon, obviously. He just tags along. Don't you, big guy?"

Torch let out a tiny, squeaking roar.

"But, what kind of species is he?" Aydrien asked "I mean, he looks like a fireworm, but-"

"He is." Lana responded "Long story short, he's skin isn't as hot as the sun anymore. I can tell you about it later. Why don't you tell me about… well, you? You said your name was Aydrien, right?"

And so the conversations went on like that for a good long while, into dinner and for a bit of time after. Of the bunch, Avrak and Lana were the two to whom Aydrien found himself talking to the most, though Hax and Aurora each had their own quips and things to add in now and again. Indeed, one who seemed to have hardly said a word all evening was Balder, though he did respond to any questions asked of him, usually with a simple yes or no.

 _All in all,_ Aydrien thought, _I could get used to these people._

* * *

And then, after their dinner was done and their bellies were full, they took each other out of the grat hall to introduce to each other their dragons.

Of course, Aydrien had already met Ziza, Avrak's mischievous wooly howl, spotted and splashed with black spots along her white coat. Lana's dragon, in comparison, was one he had never heard of, only read about.

It was a Windwalker dragon, Skylark by the name, and if there was one word to describe it, that word would be majestic. Sleek and lean, she was covered in a coat of soft white feathers instead of hard scales, and she walked with her head held high and proud, like a cat. On her belly and bottom of her neck, the feathers darkened to a pale, sky blue, and its tail ended in a small fin of mixed blue and white.

Next was Hax's dragon, Sunflower, a thoroughly uninteresting dragon, in Aydrien's opinion. It was a gronckle, a dragon Aydrien had never been particularly fond of, if only because of their laziness. Sure, they could crush solid stone with nothing but their jaws, and sure, they could be tougher than a badger stuck in a corner when they got into a fight. But in the end, A gronckle was still a gronckle, and it's two favorite activities were generally eating and sleeping. Even if that meant doing one of those two thing while they were trying to fly.

Hax's gronckle was orange in color and slightly smaller than average, but it looked very small in comparison to the dragon beside it, Baldor's dragon. It was a rumblehorn named Krotr, and even by the standards of his species, Krotr was huge, even larger than Aydrien's grandfather's dragon, Skullcrusher. Krotr probably weighed at least as much as any two of the other dragons the teens rode, and all of that was scales, bone, and iron hard-muscle.

Yet, despite his titanic stature, he wasn't intimidating as much as he was fascinating to behold, for it seemed as if someone had thrown several dozen bucks worth of paint over him, with no to colors being alike. He was mainly blue in color, though his scales lightened to green on his underside and chest, while the end of his tail was a light marron color. His wings were a mixture of dozens of different colors splattered all over, while his head seemed an odd combination of oranges yellow, with huge purple horns sticking out of the front of his skull.

An odd looking dragon, to say the least, but not as odd looking as the very last dragon in the group, Aurora's dragon. Aydrien had never seen, nor heard of, nor even conceived of a dragon quite like hers. For her dragon, at first glance, did not even look like a dragon at all!

It looked more like a wolf.

Granted, there was no wolf in the world that could grow to the size of this creature, and granted, no ordinary wolf boasted a large set of black, feathered wings. This was a dragon, though Aydrien would not have guesses it at first glance.

And strangely, unlike the other dragons, it had no saddle.

"Is this not your riding dragon?" Aydrien asked Aurora once he noticed this. "Why doesn't he have a saddle? Do you need help making one?"

"Thanks, but no thanks" Aurora responded, rubbing her dragon-wolf's head vigorously "Nightsound doesn't like saddles, cause they make him sore, so I just ride bare-back."

"Besides" Aurora continued, indicating her dragon's front left leg "If he ever needs anything to remember me by he has these. See?"

Sure enough, around Nightsound's leg were a three intricate, sparkling bracelets, almost the same as the ones that Aurora wore around her own arm. They sparkled dully in the light of the full moon that was in the sky that night.

And so, the six riders of the Archipelago, and their dragons, came together for the very first time. Under the light of moon and a thousand, thousand stars.

Their adventure was about to begin.

* * *

 **And there we have it. It begins.**

 **As I have said, I am going to be doing each of the separate chapters as a series of mini stories, similar to the TV series in that its all connected, but each of them has a stand along aspect to it. Here is a list of names for some of the upcoming chapters/episodes that I have planned.**

 **-School's in Session**

 **-Unhappy Camper**

 **-Light Up My Life**

 **-The Big Egg Theory**

 **-Sunlight, Moonlight**

 **Those are a few names I have planed. You can guess whats going to happen based on those.**

 **Like I sad before, I want you anyone with an idea to be involved with this story, so if you have an idea for some kind of episode, just send it in. If you have an idea for a new dragon you want me to use, send it in. If you have any kind of canon dragon you want to see in this story, send it in. Basically, if you have any kind of idea at all for this story...**

 **You guessed it. SEND IT IN! And with these ideas, there is no such thing as too much detail or description. Just give an idea, and I'll work with you to get it into RotA!**

 **Review, follow, and favorite, and as always, have a good one!**


	3. School's In Session

**Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd we're are back!**

 **Hello everyone! How are you all today, cause I am feeling fantastic! Started up at University, which is going a lot better than I thought it would be. Heck, it's actually pretty sweet here. Better than High School was, definitely. And no, that is not because I am slacking off on all of my work.**

 **Anyways, here is your chapter!**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Anyone who knew anything about Astrid Hofferson Haddock knew that when she was teaching, she was definitely one to push her students. If any of the riders in training were hoping for a smooth cruise through their training, they were sorely mistake. Even Aydrien, Astrid's own son, was not getting off easily. Indeed having your mother as your primary teacher was definitely an extra incentive not to screw up. Aydrien's mother wasn't the only teacher that they would have at the academy, but she was definitely the one who would be teaching them the most.

The six riders in training all arrived on time that morning, but the gates were closed so that Astrid could finish preparations. It was only a few minutes after they arrived that they were let inside, along with their dragons.

Aydrien was very familiar with this place. After all, when he was younger, he had often snuck around to the stands that surrounded the arena to watch his mom training the various dragons and riders that now inhabited the island. It wasn't always the most entertaining to watch. Sometimes, Astrid would go the whole day explaining how to care for a dragons claws and teeth, or she would take the riders out of the academy all together for flying, leaving Aydrien staring at an empty stone arena.

Whenever he saw his mother actually working with the dragons themselves, it was a whole different story. Aydrien had heard the tale of his mother growing up in the dragons sanctuary more times than he could count, but hearing that tale and seeing the living legend were two different stories. When Astrid interacted with dragons, it was more than just confidence that seemed to push her along the correct path. It was instinct built up over the years Astrid had lived almost exclusively among dragons. No one else on the island, save Aydrien's grandmother, Valka, could claim such a powerful connection. Not even Astrid's own husband.

They all entered the arena to find Astrid and Stormfly in the center of the arena, patiently wating for all the students and their dragons to file in. The dragons came in slowly, not particularly keen on the idea of training in an enclosed space, no matter how roomy it was. The chain link covering over the arena was planned at one time to be taken down, but once the academy started up, the trainers came to see the wisdom of keeping it in place.

"Welcome to the Berk Dragon Training Academy." Astrid said, once everyone had flittered in. Her intense, blue eyes swept over the gathered students. More than one of them froze momentarily in nervousness as that gaze passed over them, for though Astrid's eyes were warm and friendly, they were still the eyes of a living legend. Though she was not the first dragon rider, she was definitely the most famous, and along with her skills in hand-to-hand combat, she had once been feared throughout the Archipelago by trappers and pirates alike.

Not that she didn't still have those skills. More than one dragon trapper had been dismayed to find that the Valkyrie's legendary fighting skills had not diminished with age.

"As you all know" Astrid continued", you have come here to learn what I have to teach you about dragons. You have all discovered the beginnings of what you need to walk this path, but there is much still you must learn in order to fully comprehend what it means to be a dragon rider."

"I won't lie to you. This training will be hard. I don't want to teach people who think they are not up to this, for it is not the path for everyone. I will only ever ask for the best you can do, but if you cannot bring that with you everyday, then this is the time to say so. If you decide that you wish to be part of this class, there will be no turning back beyond this point. If someone thinks that they don't have what it takes, then step forwards now."

A long silence passed, but none of the six stepped forwards.

"Good" Astrid said. Then she smiled. "Let's begin."

* * *

When it came to teaching, Astrid definitely preferred hands on learning rather that reading out of a book. Showing student what they needed to know rather than simply telling them always seemed to make them remember things better. And it seemed to bring her closer to the people she was teaching.

And so, with most classes, Astrid would have brought in at least on dragon for the students to interact with, showing them how it behaved and reacted rather than telling them. Today, however was different. The first day of classes was not so much about teaching anything as it was to gauge each individual in the class. Astrid wanted to know exactly how ready each of them were, for though learning to be a dragon rider could be a wonderful, exciting experience, it also had the potential to be quite dangerous.

And so, today was all basic theory and learning from a book. Learning the different dragon classes, learning about the different species within those classes, and most importantly, how to avoid provoking a dragon.

Each of these was a big subject, and Astrid knew she wouldn't be able to cover all of them, or even one of them, in a single day. Not in their entirety, at least. But that wasn't the point. All day long, even as she talked and talked, she was monitoring each of the teens in turn. She even watched Aydrien closely, for even though Astrid knew her son very well, she didn't necessarily know how he would react to this kind of training. She had her expectations, but wondered exactly how accurate they would be.

Overall, it went relatively smoothly. All the students passed the first test that day, without even knowing they were being tested. And Astrid got a full assessment of each of them.

Aydrien, as Astrid expected went at the tasks of memorization with the same dedication as he did everything else that he loved doing, and Astrid couldn't help but feel a surge of motherly pride at his prowess. True, most of what she taught that day he probably already knew, due to his upbringing, but she was still proud.

The two girls, Aurora and Lana, also performed excellently, though in different ways. Outwardly, it seemed as if Aurora was the smarter of the two, but Astrid came to realize that it was because she was the more outgoing one, more ready to speak up, volunteer knowledge, and take chances with her words than Lana. Everywhere Aurora was confident, Lana was more shy, and a bit more closed off.

In Avrak and Hax, Astrid saw a pair of trouble-makers. There was no lack of willingness to learn in them, but both of them seemed to hardly be able to go five minutes without getting into some kind of mischief. One hand, there was Hax, who was easily distracted, less than mature at times, and most of all, seemed to have a lack of true appreciation for what Astrid was trying to teach him. He didn't seem to appreciate that there were some in the Archipelago that would kill to have the kind of information he was getting.

Whereas Hax's mischief came out of childish ignorance, Avrak seemed to cause mischief intentionally. He and his dragon, Ziza, seemed to find a way to get a laugh or joke out of everything, usually at some else's expense. There was no predicting what the boy and his wooly howl were thinking at any given time.

But, despite those two, the student Astird was most intrigued by (and therefore most suspicious of) was Balder. Out of everyone in the group, Balder was by far the most quite and reserved. When press, he proved to be adequately intelligent, and he was certainly willing to learn, but he never volunteered anything. He never spoke unless spoken to directly. And he never so much as asked a single question throughout the classes.

That made Astrid suspicious. The tribe Baldor came from was on White Stone island, a tribe that Berk was friendly with, though they hadn't heard from them in a long, long time, except what Balder told them. They were way to go and see for regular trips, even on dragon back, and so several months had passed since they had heard from their chief.

And Balder was little help with that. He always answered with as few words as possible when asked about his tribe, and always tried to evade when pinned down for an answer. Astrid hadn't really tried to pry any real information out of him yet, but she knew that he was hiding something.

All that remained was to figure out what.

* * *

Over all, Aydrien found that first day to be enjoyable, if a little bit tedious. While most of the stuff he was learning were things that he already knew, there were some interesting facts from training that he _hadn't_ know, even though he had practically memorized the book of dragons. Not being much of a writing person, Astrid had not really done much updating on that book in a long, long while, even though she discovered new things about dragons and new species frequently. She said she would update it someday, but, in all likeliness, she would just assign someone else to do it and get them to write down what she told them.

Heck, that might even be Aydrien doing that updating for her. He wouldn't mind at all.

"So what do you think? First day, eh?" Avrak said to Aydrien as the gang walked out of the arena. "'Bit shorter than I expected. But hey, I'm not complaining."

"You talk a big talk for someone who spent half the class goofing off, Avrak" Aurora but in from behind the two boys. "Is it too much to ask to act like you're older than two years old while in class?"

"Hey, you gotta have a little bit of fun once in a while" Avrak replied, his voice full of bluster. "Besides, I'm not the two year old in class. That's Hax's job."

"Hey!" Hax called indignantly from the back of the group. "I am fifteen you know. And I can prove it!"

"Oh? How are you gonna do that?"

Hax opened his mouth to retort, but ended up just standing there thoughtfully. Awkwardly, if Aydrien was to guess. Lucky for him, Aurora saved him more embarrassment.

"Well, guys, how bout we all go flying. Bet Nightsound and I can beat anyone of you in a race!" She exclaimed.

After spending the whole day cloistered up in the arena, the riders were all too. And so where their dragons.

All but one rider jumped on their dragons, ready to shoot off into the sky.

"Baldor?" said Lana "You not coming?"

"I'll pass." Balder replied shortly "See you all later."

The other riders thought nothing of it, and so they simply took off, asking Aydrien where would be a good place to have a race on Berk.

Balder watched them all go, a slight longing in his eyes. Behind him, his rumblehorn Krotr grumbled unhappily, and Balder dropped a hand on his dragon's head as he moved so tstand beside his rider.

"I know, pal. But we didn't come here to make friends. We have a job to do, a duty to our people. We aren't here to make friends."

Still, Krotr seemed unhappy, and that made Balder unhappy, seeing his dragon so distressed.

"It'll all pay off in the end. You'll see." Balder said

In those words, Balder was speaking as much to himself as his dragon.

"You'll see."

* * *

"So, what kind of species is your… dragon?" Aydrien asked Aurora later that day. The two of them, plus Arvak, Lana, and Hax had all finished their race together, and now lounged on one of the cliffs of the mountain overlooking the village of Berk. Well, most of them were lounging at least. Avrak was trying futilely to catch dragon, for she had stolen his goggles and was now prancing around as he tore after her, trying to get them back.

"Why don't you tell me, dragon boy. After all, you're the guy who grew up living with dragons. Wouldn't you already know?"

"Not exactly" Aydrien replied "I mean, I know some dragons, but I'm not exactly the super dragon expert everyone expects me to be. Common assumption people make."

"Oh, sorry." Aurora apologized, though there was nothing contrite sounding in her voice. She did, however, answer his question.

"Nightsound here, is what we call Grey Stalker, back where I come from. Looks like a big wolf, unless you know what to really be looking for. You see, where I come from, there are plenty of wolves around, and so people just assume Grey Stalker's are more of those same wolves. It's hard to get a good look at them, after all, because they aren't exactly social when it comes to people. So then, what about your dragon? What is he?"

Aydrien was a little bit surprised a that question, though he refrained from pointing out that his dragon was not all that rare. It might even be considered common, in some parts of the world. But since he had just asked a similar question to her, he didn't try and make any sarcastic comments.

"This guy here" Aydrien said, patting Titan's wing as he dozed "is a Shield Glider. Kinda like a Razorwhip, but not exactly the same."

"What's the difference?"

"Well for one, your not going to cut yourself just by poking him." Aydrien expelained. "And also, Titan here is a little more… defensive, than your average razorwhip. Come here andfeel his wing."

Aurora scooted over and tentatively touched Titan's wing, but quickly pulled back as soon as her hand made contact, though Titan hadn't moved at all. Aydrien understood why she pulled away though.

"Cold, isn't it?"

"Ya" Aurora said, "Is it always like that?"

"Most of the time, yes" Aydrien replied "You see, his wings aren't just used for flying. They are, like metal, very tough, and Shield Glider's can use them as… well, shields. The wings are enough that they can wrap themselves in them completely, and stronger enough to deflect swords and axes."

"No way!" Aurora exclaimed in a little bit of awe. " Well, your dragon is tough, but he is never going to be as sneaky or fast as mine. You're a bit out-"

Whatever she was going to say next, Aydrien never knew, for at that moment, Ziza came charging in between them, nearly trampling them both. She would have, if Aydrien and Aurora hadn't been quick enough to dive in opposite directions to get out of the way. Avrak came running after her a moment later, still trying to get his goggles back.

Off to the side, Lana laughed.

"Don't get too distracted with each other, lovebirds. Or the next time, she will run you over for sure."

Aurora sent a glare Lana's way, and she only giggled some more. Aydrien only flushed.

"We're not, lovebirds, Lana. If you tell that to anyone, I will personally-"

"Oh, calm down. I'm just teasing. Although." Lana said "I bet your teacher might want to know might want to have a word with you if you keep trying to flirt with her son."

"She wasn't flirting with-" Aydrien began to say, but neither girl was listening. Now, it wasn't only Avrak chasing his dragon, but Aurora was chasing after Lana, yelling curses and threats every step of the way.

* * *

Hax was bored.

If you were to ask anyone from his tribe, they would say that there was not more dangerous creature in the world that Hax when he was bored, either to people around him, or to himself. They said it half-jokingly, but also half serious.

Deadly serious.

After their race, everyone simply wanted to lounge around on the mountainside, talking and talking and talking some more. There was the occasional bit of scuffle and chasing people chasing each other around but that soon quieted down, and everyone back to more talking. And while Hax wasn't opposed to talking, he wished there was something he could do that would be more… fun.

So he quietly set off with his gronkle Sunflower to go find something to do.

It was late then, that time when it didn't quite feel like afternoon anymore, but not quite evening either, and Hax made a point to fly away from the descending sun so it wouldn't get into his eyes. Of course, that meant the sun _would_ be in his eyes on the way back, but Hax wasn't thinking about that right now.

He was going to explore Berk.

He landed in a small clearing, and leapt off of his dragon, whistling a cheerful toon as he leapt off of Sunflower's back. He strolled a little bit around the clearing. He looked around, wondering if he could find some hidden path leading out through which he might explore the vast forest.

He stopped a few minutes later when Sunflower nudged his shoulder, growling out a warning.

"Hey, girl, what's wrong?" Hax asked, but even as he stopped his whistling, he noticed that the forest was deathly quiet.

There was not call of birds, no rustling of movement from small animals running through the underbrush. Not even a rasp of wind through the trees, as if it, too, was holding it's breath.

Everything was deathly quiet. And much too still.

Hax was not particularly intelligent by anyone's, but he felt there was something wrong. The silence was that of a predator waiting to pounce. The hush of all nature, each tiny animal hoping that the predator would not notice them, and would look for some other prey.

In the bushes off to one side of the clearing, the bushes rustled, shaken by something huge.

That was enough for Hax. He jumped onto Sunflower's back, faster than he thought he could possibly move. Still, his dragon, in her haste, almost took off without him, her normally lazy attitude suspended in the face of sheer fright. They shot up into the air, with Hax expecting something to burst out of the undergrowth any moment.

And then, all of the sudden….

Nothing. There was nothing. No sudden form bursting from the bushes. No sudden roar or shriek or call. Nothing, nothing at all, changed.

Hax wondered, later, if he had imagined the whole thing. He wondered if he was just getting a bit jumpy, nervous at being away from home. He mulled it over for a little while, then decided that he was probably right. He was just jumpy.

He told himself that, but he didn't go back to the clearing. Nor had he seen the big, yellow eyes staring at him as he had flown away.

It was silent and cold that night. There was a new moon, and so only the stars provided any light, and a cold, distant light that was. Not enough to see by, for most, let alone see well enough to avoid crashing into things. A few torches were lit throughout the village, specs of light amidst the dark, but overall, there was nothing to see.

Unless one knew where to look.

The figure moved through the shadows swiftly, passing just close enough to the torches that they might see the route, but not close enough so that they might be seen in that torchlight. Men and women assigned to night watch crisscrossed over the figures path, and each time, the figure ducked in between a pair of buildings, or behind a bush.

They did not wish to be seen. Or followed.

Slowly, steadily, the figure made its way to the edge of the village, and then out into the black forest covering the island. When they were a good distance away, the dark figure reached beneath their cloak ad pulled out a tiny, tiny candle, lit it, and carried on through the darkness.

The figure moved on towards it's destination.

It did not notice its equally silent follower, gliding along the forest floor with much greater grace and stealth.

* * *

 **Again, more of an intro chapter here, setting up for several different plot lines in the future. It's going to be fun, seeing how it will all play out.**

 **Review, follow, and favorite, and as always, HAVE A GOOD ONE!**

 **And hold onto your hats, folks. Because school is in session!**

 **Next Chapter - Unhappy Camper**


	4. Unhappy Camper

**I AM STILL ALIVE!**

 **Sorry, for the wait guys. Its been two weeks since I updated for you, and I am super sorry about that. A mixture of tests, a small trip, and simple writer's block has made this chapter come out later than it should have, and that's BAD!**

 **Anyways, hope you guys like this chapter, and I will try my best to make sure the next one isn't so late!**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"We're going on a camping trip today."

Those were the first things Astrid had said to her students when they had walked into the academy that morning. It had been about a week since they had started out in their training, and most of them had gotten comfortable with the early morning routine, though there was still a bit of complaining from Avrak at how he hated being woken up at the crack of dawn. Even though it wasn't actually at the crack of dawn that they woke him up, but that didn't stop him from complaining.

Still, it could have been worse, Aydrien supposed.

None of the teens really had an idea of where they were flying that morning, only that they were to keep following Astrid, who flew at the head of their loose formation on Stormfly. The teens all spread about behind her constantly scanning the horizon for any sigh of land.

"Are we there yet?" Hax called form the back of the group, for what felt like about the hundredth time that day. His only response from Astrid was a sigh, but Aurora decided she had had enough.

"Hax, if you ask that one more time, your dragon is going to be fishing for you. Can we just have some peace and quiet for five minutes?"

"Give it up, Aurora" Lana replied, before Hax had a chance to talk again and say something stupid. "Were all just a bit tired, that's all. No need to take it out on Hax."

Aurora just sighed in disgust and urged her dragon to fly a bit further ahead, near the front of the group, where she wouldn't have to hear Hax's whining.

"What's gotten into her?" Aydrien wondered out loud, keeping his voice down a bit so that Aurora wouldn't hear him from her position.

"Oh, her? That's nothing. Just a bit annoyed is all" Lana said. "In fact, I bet I will be more than willing to send Hax swimming if he says, 'are we there yet' one more time."

"Ya, but usually Aurora just kinda…. You know, ignores Hax. Not that that is much better, but-"

"Don't worry about it." Lana assured "she'll be fine once we got to where we are going."

Aydrien let the subject drop, but he was sure there was something off with Aurora today.

They finally reached the island they were going to about an hour later, setting down on the soft white sand of a nearby beach. They all took a moment to stretched as they set down after the long hours of flight, then began unloading the supplies they had brought with them in their saddle bags. Aurora, who had stubbornly refused to put a saddle on her dragon, carried with her an overloaded satchel instead.

"Well, here we are." Astrid exclaimed as they set down. "Greenstone Island. We're staying overnight here."

"We're what?" Hax piped up. Astrid sighed again.

"We're staying overnight. That's why we brought all the supplies. Like bedrolls. And food enough for all our meals…" Astrid tried to keep her tone from being condescending, but a hint of impatience could still be heard.

Hax silently 'ohhh'ed.

"Anyways, if you could all start setting up camp, that would be great. Avrak, Hax, you go look for firewood. Lana, set up a firepit. Aurora, if you could go fill the pots with fresh water, there is a stream not too far down the beach and inland a bit. Balder, Aydrien, you find some flat ground for the bedrolls. I'll be back in a bit."

And with no further explanation, Astrid went off, pausing only long enough to tell Stormfly to stay and watch over the kids.

"Wait" Avrak exclaimed "What do we do if a wild dragon finds us? Aren't you supposed to be teaching us how to deal with them?"

But Astrid was already gone.

* * *

The sun dipped across the sky as noon became afternoon, then into evening as the teens dutifully did their assigned chores. In a few hours, they had a suitable camp set up on the beach, with a warm fire blazing and half a dozen bedrolls set up for sleeping. Lana had taken it upon herself to begin cooking the dinner they had brought with them, and now, a bit of stew simmered gently over the fire.

All of the teens waited anxiously for their teacher's return.

There had been no sign of Aydrien's mother since she had left when they arrived, and some of the teens were getting a little bit worried.

"Maybe something happened to her." Balder suggested mildly, and no one really appreciated that comment, though they were all thinking the same thing.

Aydrien wasn't so sure.

Astrid had asked Stormfly to stay behind, though the two of them were nearly inseparable. If Stormfly thought Astrid had been gone to long, and that something had happened to her, she would already be running around frantically trying to find her rider. Only Odin's knows how many times Stormfly had had to pull Astrid out of some kind of danger in the past.

But Stormfly did not appear worried in least. She stayed curled up a little ways from the fire, apparently dozing, apparently unconcerned. If Astrid was late in coming back, Stormfly was showing no sign that she cared.

Which probably meant that Astrid had _meant_ to be gone this long, or even longer.

Aydrien kept telling himself that, but it provided little comfort as the sun dipped behind the horizon, and the sky became darker and darker.

Evening became night, and there was still no sign of Astrid.

The six of the teens at the supper Lana made in silence, quickly and quietly, then resumed their waiting. After several hours of doing nothing, each of them was starting to feel more than a little anxious. Hax resorted to pacing around in a circle around the camp, and Aydrien could see that Aurora was centching and unclenching her fists from across the fire.

"Well, who is up for a ghost story" Avrak suddenly piped up. Everyone was startled from their private thoughts at the sound of his voice, a small release of the pent up tension that so pervade the camp.

"Anyone got any good one?" Avrak asked.

"Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, I got one, I got one." Hax exclaimed excitedly. HE bounded over to take a seat by the fire, right next to Aurora, who seemed less than enthused to have to be sitting next to him.

"Alright, so, one night, there was this house on a hill. A hou-"

Aurora shoved Hax into the sand.

"We've already heard that one, Hax. Two nights ago. Give us something new."

"Wow, someone is a little bit on edge tonight." Avrak taunted. "What's the matter? Scared of the dark or something?"

Aurora's glare melted the smirk off of Avrak's face in a heartbeat.

Aydrien watched the exchange curiously. Aurora was usually not so quick to anger like this, often turning someone's own jokes back on them, handling things with dry wit and word-fencing than physical force and glares. Now, by the way she was looking at Avrak, Aydrien half expected her to leap over the fire and strangle him.

Instead, she merely stood up, whistled for Nightsound to follow, and stalked off into the direction of the woods.

"Aurora wait-" Aydrien began to say, but another glare from the girl stopped him cold. Aydrien certainly didn't to make her more angry than she already was, and so he just watched helplessly as she disappeared into the tree line.

No one spoke for a good ten second.

"Well, nice job guys" Aydrien stated drily, aiming his words at Avrak and Hax "Now we're short one. Thanks."

"Ummm, your welcome I guess" Hax said tentatively, not picking up on Aydrien's sarcasm "But I thought that would be a bad thing."

Aydrien slapped his hand over his forehead.

"Don't blame them, Aydrien" Lana said "It's not something they did… other than being muttonheads that is, which happens all the time. Aurora's got something on her mind, I think. Something… just something. I don't really know what, but it is there. Give it a bit. She'll snap out of it."

"And… what if she doesn't? It isn't really all that safe to go wandering around an unknown island at night."

Lana had no response to that.

* * *

Aurora was frustrated. With the world, with her life, but mostly, with dragon training.

When she had left how with Nightsound, sneaking off in the middle of the night, she had envisioned herself almost as the head character of an epic tale, living a life of adventure and excitement, barely a step ahead of disaster at every turn. A dangerous life, yes, but a life lived to its fullest, Aurora believed. A life where she was actually _living_ instead of just surviving. When she had joined the Berk Dragon Academy, she thought she had found that life.

The first week of training had shown her the truth.

There was no real adventure here, no true excitement to be found. The first week of classes had been challenged nothing more than her intellect, and a simple challenge that had been indeed. Perhaps it might have been hard for someone else, but most of what Aurora was being taught she already knew, and what she didn't know she found easy to memorize. Astrid constantly pounded into her students how important this information would be, that it could save their life some day, but Aurora disagreed. She had survived on her own long enough, and she came to Berk to discover something new, not stare blankly at a teacher as she spit out facts Aurora already knew.

And now that same teacher had left abandoned in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of muttonheads.

Aurora sighed, and beside her, Nightsound whined sympathetically, nuzzling her with his furred head. She dropped a hand to scratch behind his ear.

"I know, boy. Not exactly what I was hoping for, that's all. Maybe Berk just isn't the place for us."

Nightsound rumbled deep in his throat.

"But we can't go back home. It isn't even our home anymore. We can't go back."

Nightsound rumbled sadly, pushing his head up against Aurora's chest. She hated seeing her dragon unhappy like this, and he was especially didn't like the mention of home. He missed his home, Aurora suspected, and possibly his family, if he had one. The only family he had now was Aurora.

Aurora also missed her family. And her home. But unlike Nightsound, her family would no longer welcome her should she go back. And her home, should she return, would never be what it once was.

* * *

It was not much longer before Astrid finally got back to the camp, and the students were more than a little bit surprised at what they saw.

Stormfly, of course, was the first to notice her riders return, and rushed to her as soon as she entered the edge of the firelight. Aydrien actually jumped at the Nadder's sudden movement, then sighed in relief as he saw it was only his mother. She took a moment to greet her dragon she Stormfly nuzzled her, and then moved into direct view.

What Aydrien was going to say was lost as his eyes caught sight of the huge, fresh bruise under his mother's, causing that eye to be almost swollen shut.

"Mom, what happened?"

Astrid smirked a little, which did little to placate either Aydrien, or Stormfly, who had also noticed Astrid's bruise and was now circling her rider in a more worried agitated fashion.

"Is it really that noticeable?" Astrid asked, moving a hand up to trace over the patch of darkened skin. "Well, it couldn't be helped. I ran into a rather grumpy dragon on the way back, an old grapple grounder. I haven't wrestled with one of those since I was a kid."

"Is he… Where is he?" Aydrien was not normally the aggressive type, but that dragon had hurt his mother. If he was still close by…

"Don't worry about him." Astrid brushed it off. "Besides, he was worse off than me when all was said and done. And I needed the exercise."

"Now, I'm sorry I am late, but I brought you guys here to see something- wait, where is Aurora?" Astrid said as she scanned the camp, only just realizing she was she was one student and one dragon short.

"She, umm…. She kinda.." Aydrien stuttered, trying to think of a way to break the news to his mother. Fortunately, or rather, unfortunately, someone else did it for him.

"She freaked out and ran off into the forest. I don't think she is coming back." Hax blurted, and every eye in the little camp site turned to him. He didn't seem to be embarrassed in the least by the sudden attention.

Astrid sighed.

"And why did she leave, exactly?"

Hax shrugged.

"I can't remember."

On the other side of the fire, Lana facepalmed.

"Well, there is nothing for it. I want to show you all something. Follow me."

* * *

Aurora had taken to hurling her knife at a tree, over and over. The satisfying _thunk_ of the blade sinking into the trunk of the giant plant was usually enough to let Aurora blow off some steam and clear her thoughts. This time though, the constant ritual of throwing, retrieving, and throwing again was not helping.

She had just retrieved her dagger for what seemed like the thousandth time since she had come out, a voice cut through the gloom and interrupted her thoughts.

"Throwing sharp objects doesn't solve your problems. Believe me, I know."

Aurora spun around at the sound of Astrid's voice, startled instantly from her inner thoughts. She wondered how she hadn't heard her teacher coming through the thick undergrowth. Even if she had been too deep in her thoughts to notice Astrid's approach, Nightsound should have warned her.

Unless her dragon didn't think she needed a warning of her teacher.

"The others told me what happened." Astrid continued "If you are angry at me for making you wait so long, I can understand that, but I doubt that that is what this us about. What is the matter? Don't worry, it is only me and Stormfly here."

"Why do you care?" Aurora snapped, a little more sharply than she intended. Certainly she wasn't feeling all that great, but that was no reason to be rude.

But if Astrid was at all deterred by the Aurora's harsh words, she didn't show it.

"I care because I am your teacher, and you are my student. Therefore, your well being is part of my concern, whether we like it or not. Until you go back home to your parents and your tribe, you are my responsibility. Now will you tell me what is wrong?"

Aurora winced slightly at the mention of her parents, but if Astrid noticed, she didn't say anything. She just waited patiently, calmly. Strangely, under that knowing gaze, Aurora did not feel like she was being… judged. There was a steady, unwavering quality in that gaze, something that suggested the kindness behind those eyes would never be extinguished, that no matter what happened, there would always be that quality of trust and love.

"I…I just… training hasn't been… all I thought it would be." Aurora said slowly, choosing her words carefully, waiting, anticipating, some flash of anger at a perceived insult.

There was none.

"Many people find that. Some people find it overwhelming. Others find it tedious. Some enjoy it, and some people don't" Astrid explained. "One thing that everyone will agree on however, is that it is never what they expected."

Astrid smiled to herself.

"It certainly wasn't what I expected."

"I get that. I just kind of thought it might have been more like an… an adventure, I suppose."

At that, Astrid threw back her head and laughed. It wasn't a quiet chuckle, but a full belly laugh, loud enough for Nightsound, who had been dozing nearby, to raise his head in interest at the sound.

"Oh, I'm sorry. You just remind me of someone I know."

"Who?"

"Oh, never mind." Astrid said, waving her hand dismissively. "The point is, I learned something very important. Every day is an adventure, if only you choose to live it."

Aurora groaned. Like she had never heard _that_ saying before, or at least something like it.

"I know, it sounds kind of typical, but it is true." Astrid continued. "It doesn't take great, incredible feats of strength or skill or speed, or the defeat of a great enemy to make an adventure. All you need to do, is learn to appreciate the little things."

Astrid turned and started walking back the way she came.

"Follow me, Aurora. There is something I want you to see.

* * *

It took only about ten minutes to reach the destination, with Aurora, Astrid, and their dragons moving swiftly through the soft carpet of undergrowth. The path, Aurora found, seemed like that it had already been trod upon, probably the same path Astrid and Stomrfly had taken to find her.

Aurora was alerted to the proximity of their destination by the sound of… squeaking?

They entered a big moonlight clearing, having little vegetation other than a bit of grass. All the other riders were there, as well as their dragons. They were spread out in a sort of semicircle, all gazes directed towards the center of the clearing.

And there, in the center, was a dark green Nadder.

It lay curled up as if asleep, though its eyes were open and fixed on the tiny shapes huddled near it, who were even now, resting as well.

They were baby nadders, seven of them in total, all colored in different shades of mixed blue and green, dark and light. They seemed so very tiny to Aurora, small enough to hold in her hands even.

"This is Lief, and she is from Berk." Astrid explained to Aurora quietly. "Most dragons will leave the colony for a time when they are about to give birth, up until the baby's are about a month old and can fly back home with their own wings. Even the dragons on Berk aren't comfortable with so many humans around their newborns."

Aurora started in wonder at the scene before her. True, she had noticed an absence of very young dragons back on Berk, even at the Nursery. She had remembered someone mentioning before in passing that the dragon hatchlings would only enter the nursery once they were about a month old, but she hadn't quite appreciated how very different those month old dragons were compared to these newborns were right here, in front of her.

And it turned out one of those newborns was not so very tired.

Aurora felt something touching her leg, and looked down to see one of the hatchlings, its scales a beautiful, rich cyan, nibbling on her pant leg. It looked up at her, all huge, innocent eyes. It chirped at her, once, twice, and then went back to nibbling on her pant leg.

"Looks like you found a friend." Astrid said softly, off to the side "He's new to this life, and a little bit adventurous, it seems. Sound familiar?"

Aurora didn't quite know how to respond to that. Here, right at her feet, was a tiny, innocent new life, not knowing what these strangers might be, but willing to find out, never looking back or regretting his decision.

 _Never looking back…_

Aurora reached down tentatively to touch that tiny dragon, but a growl of warning reached her ears when her hand came within a few inches of is back. Aurora looked up to see the Nadder mother, eyes shining and fixed upon her intently.

"It's ok" Astrid said "She just doesn't know you. But she knows I won't anything happen to her son. Just make no sudden moves, and be very, very gentle."

Aurora glanced back to Astrid, then the mother Nadder, and then back to the small baby nadder at her feet. Then moving even slower than before, she reached down an, just barely, brushed her fingertips over its back.

It was… incredible. The newborns scales were soft and warm, having yet to acquire the same sort of density and strength that came with adulthood. The hatchling twitched under her touch, bringing his tiny snout around that he might sniff at her hand. It nuzzled her fingers gently, making a little squeaking sound of pleasure.

Aurora had never experienced anything quite like this. It was no heart-pumping, thrilling experience, such as a battle, or a race through the skies, or a deep dive, but it was special, unique, a tiny, simple pleasure. Not a grand adventure.

Just her, and a newborn dragon.

A new, amazing life.

 _It is easy to say that you can appreciate the little things in life, but another thing entirely to actually do it. Sometimes, one must not simply look to the future, to the excitement one may find in the distant future, that single, special moment that will bring great pleasure, but be over in a flash. While we look to that future, we must not forget to appreciate the simple things, the small things, all around us._

 _All you have to do is stop, look, and you will find your world an amazing place indeed._

 _Aurora, Rider of the Archipelago._

* * *

 **Whew, there we have it. Better start writing the next one right away to make up. Hoped you guys liked this chapter, and I will hopefully get more to you soon.**

 **Next Chap:**

 **Light Up My Life**

 **Review, follow, and favorite, and as always, have a good one!**


	5. Light Up My Life

**I am so, so, so, so, so so sorry.**

 **I took longer than I expected to get the last chapter out, and then I took even longer to get this one out. I apologize most profusely. University is hard, and is definitely taking up lots of time. I hope this huge delay between chapters does not become normal, and I promise I will try harder in the future to get them up sooner.**

* * *

Lana had picked up many skills in her sixteen years of life. She was fairly decent with a sword, as well as very skilled in the healing arts. She started her own dragon training by herself, befriending and bonding with not one, but two dragons before she had even heard of the dragon academy.

Lana believed that, should she put her mind to something, she could accomplish it, no matter how difficult or complicated it might be. If one went at it enough times, they would eventually get it. After all, not giving up, no matter the odds, was part of what made Lana who she was today. Those skills that she couldn't get, she tried again and again until she had them down. And almost all of those skills, she had come to master.

All but one, that is.

Archery.

And so, on morning such as this one, where there were no classes, and it was not so cold that it would freeze your toes off, Lana went out to practice shooting before she started her day.

She was set up in a small clearing, outside of the village, with a few red and white targets stretched out in a row before her, about a dozen paces away from where Lana stood. When Astrid had first discovered that Lana did archery , she offered to have the arena cleared at specific times so that Lana could practice, but she refused. The academy could be a busy place, and Lana most certainly didn't want anyone taking an arrow in the back.

Which was a distinct possibility, given Lana's skill. Or rather, lack thereof.

Lana pulled slowly back on the string of her longbow, eyes locked on the big red target across the clearing. She tried to line her eye up down the shaft of the arrow set on the bow, and place it in line with the center, but trying to get your face in that close was a pain. She spent a dozen seconds or so trying to line up the shot, arms quivering from the effort of holding the string steady at full draw, and the let fly.

The release came more from the fact that Lana's fingers holding the string simply gave out than any controlled launch, and the arrow didn't seem to fly straight at all. Lana had thought she lined it up decently enough, but it almost seemed as of the arrow had a mind of its own where it wanted to go. It whizzed right past the target and hissed into the underbrush, vanishing in an instant.

Lana sighed. There was another arrow she would probably never find.

Off to the side, Skylark was lay on her side, paying only the slightest of attention to her rider. Mostly, She was focused on grooming her pristine, white-feathered wings, making sure there was to a spec of dirt on them that would diminish their luster.

At her riders sigh, however, Skylark did look up. She never mocked her rider's dedication, but she wondered why she continued on a task that seemed to be so obviously fruitless. Lana had been trying to teach herself archery for years, and never had she gotten better than this. Perhaps she simply didn't have what it took.

But she was stubborn, as most Viking's were. She would keep trying till she got it, or until the day she died.

Lana reached for her quiver, only to then realize that she had run completely out of arrows. She let out another sigh, and went to retrieve the ones she could see. A few of the arrows she had fired that morning did manage to get stuck in the targets, but those had been due to luck much more than skill, and only one of them came close to hitting the targets center.

And then, there came the more tedious task of retrieving the arrows that had _not_ hit the targets. And there were plenty of those.

She had just retrieved her fifteenth arrow when she heard the beating of wings, and a dragon descended into the clearing.

It was Titan, with Aydrien perched on his back.

"Hey, Lana. You know, there is no class today. You don't have to get up this early." Aydrien called. Titan touched down gracefully and folded his wings at his side, and Aydrien leapt of his back.

"Morning to you to" Lana said. Normally, she didn't mind friendly conversation, but she didn't really like it when people were watching her while she was trying to practice. It kind of felt like they were judging her based on her skill, though the logical part of her told her that it was probably not the case. Still, it bothered her.

"Hey, you never told me you did archery?" Aydrien said, seeing the bow in her hand.

"Well, ya, sort of." Lana replied, purposefully not meeting Aydrien's eyes as she collected her arrows.

"Sort of?" Aydrien asked, confused. He wasn't giving up easily.

"Ya, well… I don't… I'm not that good at it."

"Really?" Aydrien smiled "Well, I'm sure you'll get better. All it takes is-"

"I've been practicing for years." Lana interrupted, a little more harshly than she intended. Aydrien's smile disappeared.

"Oh… I see. If it makes you feel any better, I'm not that good at it either. My mom always told me that 'If I was going to get good with a weapon, get good with one that isn't as breakable as the average twig. After that, I can teach you to use a bow, if you still want.'"

Lana smiled, in spite of herself. From what she knew of her Astrid, that definitely sounded like her.

"Anyways" Aydrien continued "the gang and I are going up to the cove for a bit. You want to come?"

"I'll be down in a bit. Just a few more shots."

"Alright, see you later." Aydrien said. HE smiled once more, hopped onto Titan's back, and together they flew off.

* * *

"Lana, just the person I was looking for."

Lana was more than a little surprised to turn and see Astrid striding towards her. She had just finished up with her archery practice and had gone back to the village to drop off her bow and arrow. Her last few shots fired had proved to be just as fruitless as always, and so after another half hour or so, Lana had given up on her archery for that day, ready to head off to the cove to see what everyone else was doing.

Apparently, with Astrid's sudden appearance, that wasn't going to be the case.

"Ummm.. Ok. What do you want me for?" Lana asked, the tiniest quiver in her voice. Despite having started training a few weeks ago, she was still a little bit intimidated by her teacher. Though Astrid's actions had alleviated most of that fear in the first few days, there was still a bit that remained. Astrid was, after all, a bit larger than life.

"Actually, I needed your help with something. If you are busy right now, I can come back later, but it is better done sooner than later."

"You need help from _me?"_ Lana asked, a slight note of incredulity out of her voice. "Like, me specifically?"

"Yes." Astrid replied, seeming not at all phased by Lana's confusion. "I need your help with something. Torch and Skylark can come along to, if you decide you want to help."

Lana simply stood there for several seconds, still taken aback by the suddenness of the request. Her first thought, upon being approached, was that she had gotten in some kind of trouble. Now, though, she really had no idea what her teacher might have in mind at that moment.

"Ok. I guess I will come. What do you need?" Lana said after several long, grueling seconds. She didn't want to risk angering her teacher.

Astrid smiled.

"You will see in a minute."

Before long, Astrid and Lana were both soaring away from Berk on their dragons.

As was his way, Torch was huddled up inside of Lana's satchel, keeping as warm as he could in the howling, high altitude winds. Skylark and Lana were flying a bit further back behind Astrid and Stormfly, with Lana burying her hands in her dragon's feathers for warmth.

They flew like that, for about an hour, with the only conversation being when Astrid called back to make sure Lana was still alright.

And then, they arrived.

It was a fairly large island, at least the size of Berk, if not larger, and completely covered in lush, thick foliage. The ground was completely hidden by the dense canopy of treetops that blanketed every inch of the place, a vast splotch of green amidst the blue ocean.

"Stay close, Lana, or you just might lose us." Astrid called, just as Stormfly dove for the island.

As they shot into the trees, Lana discovered that the trees were not nearly as close together as the canopy ceiling might have suggested. Each tree had a huge, far-reaching set of branches that interlocked with the trees next to it, though there was a large enough space between the trees for a dragon to fly through. All the light that managed to get through to the ground was tinted a soft green, and combined with the layers of moss that carpeted the ground, everything seemed to be have a coat of emerald light shimmering on its surface.

It was eerie, but beautiful, in its own, unusual way.

Stormfly touched down atop the mossy floor, with Skylark following closely behind, and both the riders dismounted. The moss was slightly tougher than Lana expected it to be, with less give and spring under her feet than she might have thought.

"Ok, so what are we doing here?" Lana asked after a few moments.

"Well, you see Lana" Astrid explained. "You told me you have some skills as a healer a few weeks back, correct?"

Lana nodded.

"Well, I came here to get a few herbs, and seeing as you have those skills as a healer, I wanted you to help me with those. We need, Magrigial and Serpent's eye, both of which grow on this island, and the more, the better. Easy enough?"

"Ya, I guess." Lana said, still somewhat confused as to why Astrid had brought her along. But again, her the dragon rider offered little explanation.

"Just think of it as a lesson." Astrid said cryptically to Lana's blank look.

And so, for the next hour or so, Lana and Astrid, as well as their dragons, back and forth over the island as the morning crept onwards towards noon. Lana found little worth seeing throughout the trip, for the scenery never really changed from the endless field of moss and leafy roof over her head. Skylark was not incredibly comfortable with this, for she grew uneasy in enclosed spaces, much preferring the open skies and clouds.

Torch on the other hand, seemed to grow excited from within Lana's bag. His tiny head popped out, and he sniffed the air excitedly, turning from side to side as if searching for something, his tiny tongue flickering.

There were able to find the Magrigial quite simply. Lana knew how to spot and harvest it quite easily, because it often grew off of the trunks larger trees, and there were plenty of those around. Serpent's eye, however, could only found in warm, underground places.

When she mentioned this to Astrid, something unreadable flickered across her eyes, and she abruptly changed their course.

It was not much longer until they came across a cave entrance.

Had Lana not been with Astrid, she might have walked right past it without noticing it. It was hidden under the dense carpet of moss, Lana had no idea how Astrid might have been able to spot it, and there were hardly any distinguishing landmarks that Lana was able to make out. All around was just more trees.

But there it was, a tunnel under the moss, leading down, down, down…

* * *

For a tunnel Lana might not have ever noticed, it was quite large. Both Stormly and Skylark had no trouble in squeezing down the passageway, though Skylark was even more jumpy down there than she was in the enclosed forest. Lana was concerned with her dragons comfort, but she trusted Astrid enough to believe that they wouldn't be down here long. After all, Astrid did seem to notice Skylark's discomfort, though all she said was that their destination was not far.

She was correct.

As they travelled down the tunnel, Stormfly was able to emit just enough fire from her mouth so that they could all see, but it soon became apparent that her fire was not the only source of light down there. As they descended down through the earthy tunnel, a strange orange glow. It was faint, barely noticeable, and increased so imperceptibly that Lana didn't even notice it until Stormfly cut of her stream of flame, which should have plunged the tunnel into darkness.

"We are here." Astrid stated.

Lana was stunned speechless.

Before her opened up a vast, sprawling cavern, literally so large that Lana had trouble making out the far wall. The ceiling was at least twenty feet up from the floor at its lowest point, climbing up between thirty and forty feet at its peak. And it was illuminated.

Covering the walls, emitting a brilliant orange, were hundreds upon hundreds of glowing cylinders, similar to those one might find in a beehive. They were all liked together, and all over them, tiny forms crawled back and forth, glowing in the same shade of orange that the cylinders did.

It was a fireworm nest.

Lana had read about such underground structures, but she had never actually seen one, let along the inside of one. She simply stood there in awe for several threshold of the tunnel, marveling at the alien orange glow, the hundreds of glowing fireworms scuttling up and down the walls, and the sheer vastness of the chamber. Such captivating was the sight that Lana didn't even notice the intense heat of the place until a bead of sweat dripped down into one of her eyes, and she had to blink for a second or two to get rid of it.

"You said there Serpent's Eye only grew in underground, warm places, correct?" Astrid stated, and Lana nodded numbly, still more than a little overwhelmed by the sight before her.

"Good, then let's find some. Be sure not to touch any fireworms, or their combs. Those little guys will melt the flesh of your bones, and you don't even want to know what will happen if you lay so much as a finger on a firecomb."

Lana felt a stirring at her side, and turned her head just in time to see Torch leap out of her satchel and perch at her shoulder, sniffing around the air excitedly. Lana often wondered how long it had been since he had actually seen other fireworms, and guessing by his reaction, it was a quite a long time. Torch could barely sit still on Lana's shoulder.

And so they made their way slowly through the cavern, with Lana and the dragons following dutifully behind Astrid, careful of where they placed their feet. The fireworms didn't seem to happy with the rider and their dragons tromping through their home. Lana nearly jumped in fright as she got a tad too close to one of the firecombs and one of the fireworms suddenly hissed at her. Torch hissed back at the offending fireworm, but thankfully, nothing came from the brief confrontation. As long as No one actually touched the firecombs, the fireworms wouldn't attack them.

Just like with the Magrigial, Lana was the first to spot what they were looking for.

The flower of the Serpent's eyes actually grew downwards from the ceiling, unlike most flower, which grew up. A small crevice on the roof of the cavern allowed the tiny plant to worm its roots inside, and now it was hung down from a good thirty feet above the floor, the brilliant blue of its pedals muted somewhat by the orange glow of the firecombs.

And those firecombs were completely surrounding the Serpent's Eye bloom.

"There is no way one of our dragons can fly up there without bumping into those firecombs, and it is too high for the to lift us without flying. How bad do you really need that flower?" Lana asked.

"We need it at all cost. It's for a very important test." Astrid replied without missing a beat. She simply started up at the flower for several long moments, mulling over how they might get at it without disturbing fireworms. Lana also stared up at the small plant, but it was too packed in with all the firecombs. Even if they could somehow get up there, even reaching between the combs without touching them would be no easy task.

After several minutes, Lana shrugged and sighed, exasperated. She looked over at Skylark, who seemed equally at loss, and more than a little annoyed at the fact that Torch was flying circles around her head, to the point where Torch was actually making her dizzy.

Wait… Torch!

* * *

"So, you have never taught Torch to fetch, but you think he has what it takes right now to do so?" Astrid said, right after Lana had explained the plan to her.

"Well, ya. He follows commands easily enough, and he's small enough to get in there without touching the firecombs. And even if he does, he's also a fireworm. Maybe they won't see him as a threat."

"I don't know, Lana. If they recognize him as an outsider, they might try and get to him. Are you sure you want to risk this?" Astrid asked, evident concern in her voice.

Lana nodded. If nothing else, Torch was a survivor. If this plant was really so important, then she would thought it would be worth a try.

"Alright then. Give it a shot."

Lana took a deep breath, then lifted her cupped hands where torch sat contently to her lips.

"Torch" She whispered to him softly "Can you get that blue flower?"

Torch's little eyes snapped up to meet Lana's and she gestured with her chin up to the Serpent's Eye up on the ceiling. He looked up, and without pausing, fluttered out of Lana's hands and up to the ceiling.

He almost got the flower without incident.

Flying up to the plant was no trouble, Torch's sharp little claws dug securely into the ceiling. He sank his little teeth into the stem of the Serpent's eye and began tugging. Tiny he might have been, but like most fireworms, he packed a bit more muscle and force than his size might have indicated.

He tugged.

And tugged.

And tugged.

Lana felt herself holding her breath as the seconds became minutes. One other fireworm, sitting on a comb not three feet from where Torch was furiously tugging at the flower, began to take an interest in him. It moved closer, its tiny tongue flickering like a candle.

And then, all the sudden, the Seprent's eye came free.

And so did a fair sized chunk of dirt.

And so did a single firecomb, which struck the floor of the cavern with a seemingly deafening crack.

The whole cave fell silent as the fireworms turned towards that sound, and then fixed on the group.

"Lana, take Torch and Skylark, and go." Astrid commanded. She leapt immediately onto Stormfly's back, even as the nadder crouched down in a battle stance.

"What about-" Lana began to ask, but was interrupted by a tremendous roar that literally shook the cavern. Skylark jumped in fright at the sound, and Torch raced back through the air into Lana's satchel, the Serpent's eye still clentched in his jaws.

"GO!" Astrid yelled. "Don't worry about us."

* * *

The escape was harried and more than a little terrifying.

Lana had jumped onto Skylark's back, who needed no prompting to charge back up the tunnel they came from at breakneck speed. A few fireworms had initially moved to block their way, but a quick blast of flame sent them skittering out of the way, and Skylark bounded on, hurtling back up the tunnel . There was more sound of roaring, including a nadder's roar, and the sound of heavy impacts against walls or ceilings or floors. Through it all, Lana didn't look back, afraid that she would see something terrifying shooting up the tunnel behind her.

But as they got further and further, the sounds of battle faded, and then finally disappeared altogether, though Skylark did not slow her frantic pace in the slightest. That is until she, Lana and torch all came shooting out of the concealed entrance to the tunnel and tumbled out onto the mossy carpet of the forest.

Even though she wasn't the one doing the actual running, Lana felt herself panting. The whole of the experience had had an alien feel to it, wholly strange, and Lana was glad to be out of it, though she felt terrible about leaving Astrid behind. She struggled to her feet, then staggered back to the pit where the entrance lay. But she was stopped halfway there.

"Well done. You did good down there."

Lana was startled to turn and find Astrid and Stormfly, sitting quite calmly a little ways away from her. Astrid's face was red from exposure to some immense heat, but other than that, the pair of them seemed unharmed.

"Haven't tried that since I was younger. Now I remember why never did it again." Astrid continued on.

"What…how did yo..what?" Lana stuttered.

Astrid held up a hand to cut the girl short.

"I had to head off the queen while you made your escape. Turns out, after you left, I found another shortcut back up while Stormfly and I were busy battling it, and so, here we are. You still got the flower, yes?"

"Ya.. Torch has got it, and he's here I my bag."

At the sound of his name, Torch leapt out of Lana's satchel once again, the Serpent's eye still hanging from his mouth.

Astrid smiled.

"Great. Now Lana, do you mind if I ask you a question?"

"Sure. What?"

"What is that flower used for in medicine?"

A long moment of silence stretched on between them.

"So, wait… you came all the way out here, to get some extremely rare flower, that nearly got us killed… and you don't even know what it is for?" Lana exclaimed with incredulity.

Astrid smiled.

"This morning, I was asked by Saruka, the healer, to get somethings. All she gave me was the names of the plants I needed to get, and what island I could get them on. And since you have shown an interest in healing in your time on Berk, I figured you might know where to find them, what they might look like, and how to harvest them properly."

"But… couldn't you have just asked about those things yourself?"

"Maybe" Astrid replied "but, like I said, those plants were for a little experiment. More specifically… an experiment on your skills. I think that was what Saruka was hinting at the whole time when she gave me the task. She wanted to know exactly how much you know."

"I…I…see." Lana said, somewhat at lost for words.

Astrid chuckled quietly.

"For what it's worth, you passed. You were able to find what we were looking for, you showed confidence in your knowledge, and you obeyed me when I asked it of you. Of course, that last part you won't use for the rest of your life, but the first two are very useful. But the point is, I couldn't have done this without your help."

 _Couldn't have done this without your help…_

"Come on, we should be getting back."

"Astrid" Lana called, before she could take off. Her teacher turned waiting patiently for what Lana had to say.

"Do you… happen to know any archery?"

Astrid's smile returned, and she nodded, not seeming the least bit surprised by the out of place question.

* * *

 _It is never a sin to ask for help. No matter how talented an individual might be, they are still only one person, and every person has their flaws. No one can get through life on their own, so never be afraid to ask for help. Today, I had the privilege to provide help to a most talented person, someone I looked up to. And through that, I gained the courage to ask for her help._

 _Because we might not have it all together. But together, we have it all._

 _Lana Bystrom, Rider of the Archipelago_

* * *

 **Once again, my sincerest apologizes to those who waited so, so patiently for this, and I hope I will do get the next one out quicker.**

 **Next chapter up- The Big Egg Theory**

 **Review, follow, and favorite, and as always, have a good one!**


	6. The Big Egg Theory

**And here we are, another chapter for you guys.**

 **Unfortunately, these big gaps in between chapters might just be a regular thing for a while, at least until Christmas Break swings round. University is HARD. I will try to make up with as much writing as I can over the break, but right now, its tough to find time.**

 **Thanks for everyone who is staying with me. You guys are the best.**

* * *

However, The Village of Berk was in a festive mood that day.

It was one of those rare days one Berk where the weather demon that normally plagued the island seemed to be taking a holiday. The sun seemed almost unnaturally bright against the light blue sky, reaching down towards the island with all the might it could muster. This far north, that was not saying much, but enough for the inhabitants to notice a difference.

But that wasn't the only thing the people of Berk were in a celebratory mood. That day was the day of the annual visit of the Hysterics tribe. Ever since the dragons had begun living on Berk, such meetings had become fraught with tension, especially among those tribes that still had frequent skirmishes with dragons. Over time, the majority of the visiting tribes were able to become somewhat used to Berk's newest inhabitants, but others still kept their hands close to their weapons as soon as Berk came into sight on the horizon.

The Hysterics were one of the few tribes that actually seemed comfortable around the dragons. Despite the name of their tribe, they were actually fairly level headed folk (for Vikings that is), and after Hiccup and Astrid did them a few good turns, with the help of Stormfly and Toothless, they were more than happy to believe that the dragons meant them not harm.

And so, with the coming of the Hysterics that very day, Astrid was in a very fine mood that morning.

She glided over the morning clouds gentle as a whisper of wind on Stormfly's back, with no destination other than where she already was, up in the sky. She reveled in times like this, fleeting moments where she could escape responsibility and duty and be with Stormfly alone, as it had once been. Not that she regretted her life as it was now, but there was no harm in quiet time alone with a friend. The students didn't need supervision, not on their current assignment, and so Astrid let them slip away from her mind, let all her other worries slip from her mind, and instead, felt only the freedom, the exhilaration, the calm.

It was perfect, where Astrid was at her most happy… almost.

Her expression soured, just a moment, at the thought. The only thing that would have made this better was to have Hiccup up here beside her. They used to fly together, whenever they got the chance, just the two of them and their dragons. Neither of them had even been much of, well, _peoples_ people. Astrid was still sometimes intimidated by large crowds.

But when they were alone, up there in the sky, the two of them were in their element, above the complexities that ruled their lives below. These flights together had become fewer over the years, with Hiccup's duty as chief, and Astrid's duty as headmistress of the academy, and as a mother. As their flights together dwindled, however, each one seemed to become that much more satisfying…

Astrid sighed. The worst part of the flight was knowing that it would end, and that she would have to go back, and perform her duties. And this one, too, would have to come to an end, for the Hysterics would be arriving soon, and it was her duty as chiefs wife to not only appear, but to appear _presentably._

The formalities of station. If it were up to Astrid, she would send those formalities to Helhiem.

"Come on Stormfly, times up. Let's head back."

Stormfly rumbled, both in a mixture of annoyance and sadness, a sound Astrid never liked to hear. For Stormfly, these flights were never long enough for her taste.

"Come on girl. We have to you all cleaned up for the gathering. Don't you want to look good for out guests?"

Stormfly glanced back at Astrid over her shoulder.

It was rare that Astrid ever had to pull the vanity card on her dragon, but today was a day she absolutely couldn't be late today.

Stormfly knew her rider was bribing her, but she angled back towards the village. She silently lamented at how short this particular flight had to be –no more than a half hour- and shot towards home.

They continued back in silence, a flight that should have taken mere minutes… had something not suddenly caught Stormfly's attention.

"Stromfly?" Said Astrid as her dragon suddenly sniffed the air, veering slightly downwards.

"What is it girl?" Astrid asked curiously, and a little bit apprehensively. Whatever had caught Stormfly's attention enough for her to change course was certainly out of the ordinary. And out of the ordinary, on an island like Berk, was usually not a good thing.

The two of them descended down towards a thick patch of forest…

* * *

If Aydrien hadn't known better, he might have mistaken the Academy for a war zone. Mom was going to give him and the other students hell for this.

It all started with simple balance practice. Each of the students could balances themselves on their dragons back well enough… when they were sitting at least. But Astrid wanted them to learn how to _stand_ on the backs of their dragons, even while in flight.

She hadn't simply sent them off flying in what would no doubt have been a colossal mess. No, they were just practicing in the arena, learning to balance as their dragons walked around the edge of the academy, rather than soaring through the skies. The idea was just to get an understanding of the feeling of standing on top of your dragons back while in motion, and the actual flying would come along later.

A relatively safe activity. Until all hell broke loose.

Aydrien hadn't actually seen it happen, but apparently Avrak and his dragon had decided to have a little fun. According to Lana, Ziza had bumped into Skylark's as she moved cautiously around the arena, causing Lana, standing on her dragons back, to come tumbling off, cursing all the way down. It should have stopped there, but apparently, the six teens and their dragons had been waiting for an excuse to get out of this boring exercise all morning long. The argument between Lana and Avrak was suddenly expanded as Aurora, Hax, and even Balder decided to voice their opinions.

And then the dragons, taking after their riders, seemed to start arguing as well.

The exercise was forgotten amid the chaos was followed.

The teens dove out of the way as the dragons began wrestling to and fro across the Academy, batting and nipping occasionally punctuated but a flash of fire, or ice, or lava. This wasn't a battle, just more of a playful tussle, but a playful tussle of dragons could still hurt or kill a young, unwary dragon rider. All six of them found themselves doing their best to keep out of the way, and could hardly give a thought to how they might stop this mess before it became too much to handle.

All they could do was let it play out. And by the end of it, the academy was a disaster.

There was hardly any stone in the arena that wasn't scorched, or covered in ice(courtesy of Ziza), or scorched and then frozen over. Chips and gouges in the stone were evident where dragons had crashed into the walls and floor, their hard scales and claws leaving noticeable dents. Even one of the chains in the grate above the academy had been broken, or rather, partially melted, and one end dangled down over Aydrien's head.

It kind of reminded him of the stories of the dragon arena during the dragon war. Only worse.

Aydrien leaned back against Titan, completely exhausted. His dragon seemed to be taking it all in stride, non chalantly ignoring the devastation around him as if nothing where out of the ordinary.

"You know mom is going to skin you alive for this." Aydrien said to Titan "You and all the other dragons. And then she is going to throw me into a Whispering Death hole because I couldn't keep you under control."

Titan responded with a long, drawn out yawn. Either he didn't care what he had coming, or he didn't think what he had done was such a big deal.

Aydrien sighed.

"So, ummm, Aydrien." Came Lana's voice from across the Academy. She was huddled up to Skylark, making sure that her dragon wasn't seriously injured "How mad do you think your mom is going to be when she sees this." She gestured vaguely.

"I, umm. Ya, I don't-"

"Come on." Avrak cut in from across the way. "It's a dragon academy. Surely stuff like this happens from time to ti-"

Now it was Avrak's turn to be interrupted, as Astrid strode into the Academy, looking more grim than Aydrien had ever seen her.

"Umm, mom, I know this looks bad, but I can explain." Aydrien started moving to stand before her. All of the other riders were watching anxiously, waiting to hear the response.

"Later, Aydrien. Get all the dragons in their pens now, and make sure they are all locked."

Aydrien was relieved, bewildered, and just a little bit frightened at what his mother said. He was relieved at the lack of punishment, bewildered at the out of place request, and frightened by the… wrongness, of his mother's voice. To match her expression, it was more grim than any tone of voice he had heard from his mother's in his life. It was almost alien, as if it were someone impersonating his mother.

Because there was more than a little fear in her tone.

"Mom, are you ok?" Aydrien asked, even as his mother had already turned to leave.

She turned to look over her shoulder at him.

"Aydrien, just do as I ask this once, without questioning me. Please."

And with that, she strode out of the academy briskly.

There was silence in the arena for several long moments.

"Ok… that was strange." Aurora said. She walked up to stand beside Aydrien, who was still staring at the academy entrance where his mother had left. "What was that all about?"

"I have no idea" Aydrien responded.

"Well" Hax butted in "I am _not_ locking up my dragon until I get some answers. Sunflower and me are going to find out what is what."

"Hax wait-" Aydrien started to say, but Hax and his gronkle were already gone.

All the teens in the academy let out a collective sigh.

"Well, if nothing else, Hax was right about one thing. We need to get some answers." Aydrien said. HE turned to face Titan. "Sorry boy. I have to lock you up. Whatever is happening, mom sure thinks it is serious. I'll get you out as soon as I can."

Titan complied more easily than Aydrien expected, but he was still upset about having to be locked pul. Some of the other dragons were a little more argumentative, especially Syklark, who practically had to be forced into her cage by Lana, and only with the promise that she would be let out soon.

"Ok, lets hurry up then, and find out what's gotten your mom so spooked." Said Aurora.

* * *

Hiccup was having a very, very busy day that day.

In addition to his numerous chiefing chores he had to do on a regular basis, there was also dozens of things that needed to be done before the Hysterics arrived for the yearly meet, Hundreds of strict preparation requirements had to be followed, as per tradition. Specific foods, specific arrangement of the Great Hall, specific outfits, specific decorations, and a hundred other specifics that had to be met before the guests of honor arrived.

How Hiccup wished desperately that Astrid was there, at the household where he was desperately trying to sort through his various clothes to find his ceremonial belt. She was very good at finding stuff, apparently a skill that came from being a mother.

A knock on the door brought Hiccup out of his thoughts.

"Hiccup, are you in there? I need to speak with you."

It wasn't Astrid's voice, but his mother, Valka's voice.

"Ummm, ya mom, can it wait, kinda busy with all the preparations at stuff. By the way, have you seen Astrid? I could have sworn she would be back by now."

"What I need to talk to you about concerns Astrid, and it is urgent." Came the muffled reply. " I'll be downstairs."

Hiccup found his mother seated at the dining table as he came down the stairs five minutes later. She sat patiently, with her hands folded in her lap, seemingly relaxed in her posture.

But she wasn't relaxed, Hiccup could see as soon as he looked into her eyes. She was tense, and frightened about something. And sitting on the table in front of her, glittering with swirls of blue and gold, was a dragon egg about the size of Hiccup's head.

"Sit down, Hiccup. The preparations can wait."

Hiccup obediently went to sit in the chair across from his mother, waiting anxiously for her to continue. The list of things to do was slowly drifting away from the front of his mind, replaced by the urgency of in his mother's expression.

"Astrid came to me a few minutes ago with this." Valka gestured to the egg, which looked more like a precious gem than some kind of egg, if such a stone could be. It was a covered in varying shades of blue, striped with lines of blue, curving lines that crossed and crisscrossed over the smooth surface.

"Do you know what kind of egg this is, Hiccup?"

Hiccup shook his head. He was sure he might have seen it before, but only as a drawing-

"It's a Deathsong egg. Rather rare dragons, and Astrid just found this egg here on Berk."

"Deathsong?" Hiccup said, instantly more alert. The name was familiar, and certainly a held a note of menace to it, but there were dozens of menacing and intimidating dragon names. More than a few of those names he had come up with himself, but there were plenty he hadn't as well, which he had only read about. There were lots of species Astrid and Valka also knew about from their time living in the dragon nest, and while Hiccup thought he remembered all those they had told him about…

"What does that mean mom?" Hiccup continued, his gaze shifting back to the egg lying complacently on the table in front of him.

"It's bad son. Very bad. Bad enough to cancel the meeting with the Hysterics"

Hiccup nearly chocked.

"Cancel the… Mom, that's ridiculous! Do you realize the consequences of cancelling a meeting like this, especially on such short notice?"

Valka sighed, and nodded.

"I do, son. But if there is a deathsong, or a mated pair of deathsongs, then Berk is no longer safe, for Vikings or dragons. Astrid was right to start locking up the dragons. If they were free to wander around, a few of them might have even been lost right now."

Hiccup hardly heard anything after the part about 'locking up the dragons'.

"Mom… is it really that bad?"

Valka nodded gravely.

A long moment of silence passed between the two of them.

"I… I can't cancel the meeting, mom. But I will put up extra guards, and send a search party out to see if they can find the deathsong."

"Don't bother with the search party. Astrid already took Salty and Frostfire out to find the deathsong, and if anyone can find it, she can. You go finish with the preparations for the meeting." Valka said, once more taking the deathsong egg in her arms, and turning to leave.

"Wait, mom" Hiccup interrupted, grabbing his Valka's arm before she could leave. "What are you going to do with that egg."

Valka's look turned even colder.

"What I have to, son." She said, her voice cold as her gaze.

Hiccup's eyes widened.

"Mom, you wouldn't…."

"Yes, I would" Valka replied. "I've tried training a deathsong before, and it didn't work. This thing" she held up the egg "will grow up to be a creature that kills both dragons and humans, sometimes for food, other times simply for sport. I haven't found many deathsongs in the past, Hiccup, but I found there is only one way to stop them from hurting others."

Hiccup swallowed.

"I… I see."

Hiccup found himself shaking slightly as Valka exited the house, the door creaking shut behind her.

* * *

Form upstairs, Aydrien and the other dragon riders had heard it all.

When Aydrien had spotted his grandmother Valka moving towards his house, he had suspected that she might be in on whatever his mom was doing. After all, if Astrid were to share the secret problem with anyone, it would be with Valka. As soon as she entered, him and the other riders in training had all snuck around the side, right next to the open kitchen window, and listened in on the conversation.

After Valka had left, they all stood silently, speechless for several moments.

"A-Aydrien," whispered Aurora, who stood right next to him. More like leaning on him almost, in order to get as close as possible to listen in. "What is a deathsong."

Aydrien gulped.

"Well… I've only really read about them. But, if I remember correctly…. We might be in some serious trouble."

"Well, we all know how to deal with trouble" Avrak piped up. "Let's go kick us some deathsong butt!"

Aydrien sighed.

"No, guys. I think we have to leave this one to the adults. We aren't ready for this."

"Well, you heard Miss Valka." Unexpectedly, it was Lana who spoke up this time. "If there is an monstrous, rampaging deathsong here on Berk, your mom might need backup. No one will notice a couple of teenagers missing from the meeting."

"They might not notice you guys" Aydrien replied "But they will notice if I am gone. And besides, its still a bad idea for you to go."

"Wellllll" Avrak replied "seeing as how you are needed at the meeting, you can't really stop us, can you?"

Aydrien narrowed his eyes, and a long moment passed between him and Avrak, with tension building between the two of them. But it was Aydrien who backed off first.

"Fine, go help, but Aurora, I need you to stay here."

"Why?"

"Because you and I are going to get that deathsong egg."

* * *

 _To Be continued_

 **Review, favorite, and follow, and as always, have a good one.**


	7. Melody

**Seven weeks! Seven weeks since the last update. I won't even try to make up an excuse for not updating for so long. All I can say is that I am very sorry for not updating for so long, thank you for being patient, and I hope I am getting back into the swing of things with the writing.**

 **Onto other news, the new 13 Race to the Edge episodes were just released last weekend, and that is fantastic, but please don't put any spoilers for it in any reviews. I personally have already watched them, but I would hate for someone to have it spoiled when jsut looking through the comment section. So if you have any questions or comments for me that will contain spoilers for Race to the Edge, just send it to me in a PM. THANKS!**

 **And now, finally, the part you have all been waiting for. Enjoy!**

* * *

By the time the Hysterics arrived, it was almost evening.

They brought no more than half a dozen ships, a small number for such a gathering, many would say. Given the fact that the various tribes of the Archipelago were usually less than friendly with each other, they usually brought a much larger force, both for protection against possible betrayal as well as an opportunity to show off their strength to those who might become enemies in their future.

But not the Hysterics. Their chieftain, Mrogan the Trusting, never suspected that Berk would become his enemy. As his title suggested, Mrogan was a trusting(a little too much for his own good) and in turn, never broke a promise once he made one. Of course, such virtues of complete truth and complete trust were supposed to be good things to have, at least in an ideal world, but in the world they lived in, such a naïve attitude could eventually get Mrogan's tribe into trouble one day.

Fortunately, Aydrien mused, it was exactly that trusting attitude that would keep everything together for the meeting. Aydrien knew his dad hated taking advantage of the Hysteric chief's trusting nature, but it was better if word did not get out that Berk was in a state of near panic.

Everyone on Berk knew something was happening, but they just didn't know what it was. Several people had actually come to Aydrien and asked why all the dragons were being locked up. He wanted to tell them why, but to do so would expose that he had been spying on his dad, so he kept it quiet.

Evidently, Hiccup, Valka, and Astrid wanted to keep the Deathsong problem a secret.

And so, Aydrien went along with it. It was customary for him to be at least present when the Hysterics arrived, given that he was the chief's son. Of course, that meant that he couldn't be out looking for his mother and the deathsong. That meant he couldn't be looking around the village with Aurora, searching for wherever his grandmother Valka had hidden the egg. That meant-

Aydrien's thoughts were interrupted as a gangplank slapped down onto the dock right in front of him, and the Mrogan, the Hysteric chief, strode onto Berk.

"Ah, Hiccup, good to see ya lad. It's been too long, friend." Mrogan rumbled heartily, reaching out to take Hiccup's offered hand. "And Aydrien, by gods, I swear you grow taller every time I see you!"

Mrogan definitely had the look of a typical Viking chieftain. Stocky, tall, and bulging with muscle, the trappings of a Viking leader almost seeming to shine resplendently in the waning daylight.

What was not so typical about Mrogan was the wide smile that almost always seemed plastered to his broad face. Aydrien wondered how someone could be constantly smiling without breaking some bone in their face after a while, but apparently Mrogan had mastered the art of it.

"Nice to see you too," Hiccup responded, his voice hitching a little as Mrogan nearly crushed his hand in a hearty grip. "Right this way then."

"Be happy to," Hrogan replied, falling in line beside Hiccup, even as the rest of the visiting Hysterics began to stream of the boats behind him. "Say, where has your lovely wife gone off to? Not off on another adventure without you, I hope."

Hiccup laughed, though Aydrien could detect the slight tremor in that seeming display of mirth.

"No, she's, umm. She's just off on an errand. She'll be back soon, I'm sure."

While Aydrien's father might have been a terrible liar, Mrogan was even more terrible at discerning a lie from the truth.

"Oh, very well. We'll just have to start without her. Tell me, old friend, who have…."

The sound of Mrogan's voice faded as he and Hiccup moved off the dock and into the village proper. The Hysterics came steaming in behind, quickly mingling with the Berkians, some seeking out old friends form years previous. Aydrien began to follow. With the formalities taken care of, he could go back to finding out where Aurora was and seeing if she made any progress on finding that deathsong egg. But apparently, Aydrien wasn't going to be so lucky.

"Well, hey there, handsome. You're not going to run off without saying hello, are you?"

Aydrien groaned. It was Kara, Mrogan's daughter, practically leaping off the ship and running towards where Aydrien.

Kara. A year older than Aydrien, and apparently head over heels in love with him, so she claimed. It started when Aydrien was only thirteen, and that year, and the year after, Kara had done nothing but moon over him and follow him around for the entirety of yearly meeting. She hardly left her alone, even when Aydrien had gotten Titan to try and scare her off. Unfortunately, she was not one to be easily deterred. Not that she was unattractive, with her big, brown eyes, her long, wavy black hair, and of course, that perpetual smile on her face, just like her father.

But Aydrien couldn't care less about her, and felt none of the affection for her that she apparently felt for him.

Too bad he forgot about her coming, what with everything else he was supposed to be worried about.

"Oh, umm, hi Kara-" Aydrien started, but was cut off she charged into him, nearly causing him to stumble over as she threw her arms around him in a big hug (fortunately, she didn't try and kiss him, as she had done the previous year.)

"Oh, I missed you so much!" She apparently wasn't paying attention to the fact that Aydrien was not hugging her back. "It feels like it's been forever since we last saw each other. It's been pure torture, waiting for today…"

Aydrien waited for her to finish her speech, just as she had done last year. On and on she went on, all about how she had missed him horribly and how everyday without him was complete and utter torture. Fortunately, she never asked him asked him to tell her about how much he had missed her, because like his dad, Aydrien wasn't much of a liar.

"…but now that were together again, Aydrien, it is like my life is suddenly so much more-"

"Kara, I'm sorry to put a downer on the, errr, reunion, but I got a few things I actually go to do. I might have time to hang out with you later."

Kara pulled away, giving Aydrien an incredulous look for several seconds, then her smile returned.

"That's alright, I don't mind. You can show me around the village while you finish your chores. Maybe show me how you do things around here, eh?"

Aydrien had to physically restrain himself from smacking his palm against his forehead.

It was going to be a long evening.

* * *

Aurora felt a mixture of excitement and more than a little nervousness at the task before her.

After Valka had left the chief's house with the egg, she and Aydrien had initially began looking in all the places his grandmother might have hidden it without drawing too much suspicion. Of course, Aydrien figured that it would be easier to find once the Hysterics arrived for the meeting since most the Berkians would be busy tending to their guests. Aydrien himself had to be at the docks to meet them, as per custom, but promised to meet her as soon as he could sneak away through the crowd.

It had been half an hour since the Hysterics arrived, and Aydrien still hadn't met up with Aurora. So Aurora decided to head out on her own, to the most likely place where the egg might be kept.

Somewhere in the dragon stables. The place where it was the least likely for some of the guests to accidentally find it.

The stables in the caves below the village were, after all, sectioned off from everything else, with few ways to get in or out without flying. Today those ways were guarded, just to make sure no one wandered into them accidentally, but Aurora didn't think those guards would be a problem. It wouldn't be the first guarded place she had broken into, and it almost certainly wouldn't be the last.

Certainly, the guards at the entrance of the stairway leading down to the stables looked utterly bored and miserable, wanting nothing more than to go in and join the festivities.

Sufficed to say, Aurora got past them as soon as one of them turned his head.

Down the stoney steps Aurora went, silent as a ghost. The tunnel down was well lit, with several torches, as per usually, so she had no problem seeing as she descended. Slowly, the sounds of the crowds from above fade, only to be replaced by a new sound.

The sound of dozens upon dozens of dragons.

As Aurora slipped down the final bend, she saw them.

Aurora had only been to the stables themselves a few times in her stay on Berk, and had been astounded by the sheer size of it. It spanned almost half the cave network under the island, with different areas sectioned off for different kinds of dragons, whether they be with hatchlings, whether they were elderly, or if they were just plain temperamental. Each time, Aurora had been astounded by the amount of dragons milling around the place, but that was nothing compared to how many there were now.

With the Deathsong incident, nearly every single dragon on the island was cooped up in the stables that evening, and it was packed.

Granted, it wasn't as packed as one might have thought, given that the stables were designed to be prepared for just such an eventuality. It was tight, but not cramped, with enough space for the dragons to at least mill around without bumping into each other. It definitely helped that many of them were asleep, willing away the hours of boredom and inactivity with rest.

The stable was too big to completely search, but fortunately, Aurora had an idea of where to start.

She picked her way through the multitudes of sleeping or dozing dragons, taking extra care that she didn't step on any tails or feet, of which there were plenty of. More than once, a challenging growl came at her from one angle or another, usually from a dragon who wasn't too pleased at having a human in what they considered to be their own private space. But with a gesture and a few soothing words, Aurora was able to calm them.

Her weeks of training were finally coming in handy.

And so, Aurora picked her way across the vast cavern. While she might not have remembered the exact location of the spot in the cavern where she was going, she knew the general direction of where they she was going, and that was enough.

She was heading to the place where she could find the one dragon Valka completely trusted to guard that egg.

She was looking for Cloudjumper.

And she had an idea of where to find him.

A few weeks ago, when Astrid had taken the class on one of their rare tours of the dragon stables, they had run into Valka, how spent much of her time there, particularly in the nursery section of the caves. The meeting had been brief before moving on, but during it, Valka had mentioned Cloudjumper's favorite place to hang out when he came to the stables.

Probably the furthest section from the entrance. The Hot Springs.

Nestled far under the surface of Berk, the bubbling pools of water were not a particularly large attraction. The heat of so many bodies already so close together in the stables were usually enough to provide all the warmth a dragon could want, but some found the steam and heat coming off the pools relaxing, and usually napped by them after a day of hard work. Despite having grown up in an ice cave (or maybe because of it), Cloudjumper found the hot springs very enticing.

And so, that was where Aurora went.

Upon entering that section of the caves, Aurora was immediately struck by the immense heat, almost as if she had stepped into an oven. She had felt the vague effects of that heat while approaching, but actually crossing the threshold was a much bigger change. Aurora was sweating within moments, and had a bit of trouble breathing for a few more moments, before she was able to steady herself.

She spotted Cloudjumper almost immediately.

The room was not very large, after all, and most of it consisted of small, steaming pools of water, boiling up from beneath the ground. Several dragons dozed around them, mostly gronckles, but several other as well.

Cloudjumper was hanging from the ceiling, his tail wrapped around a hanging stalactite, on the far side of the largest pool. And from where Aurora was standing, the deathsong egg was nowhere to be seen. But Aurora was not one to give up so easily.

She crept around the pools, making her way towards the slumbering stormcutter, making sure not to step on any tails while doing so. Aurora was dismayed to discover that the intense heat got even worse as she got nearer to the steaming pools, though it was still bearable, if only just. So long as she didn't actually _touch_ the steaming water, it was bearable for her, at least for a little while anyway.

So focused on the water and the heat and the surrounding dragons was she that she was actually surprised to find herself right under the dozing Cloudjumper.

Suddenly the heat and resulting discomfort did not seem so important, considering the fact that the gigantic Cloudjumper was right in front of her.

And he was indeed huge. Much larger than any of the teens dragons, excluding Krotr, and certainly much larger than Aurora's dragon. She was just beginning to wonder how long it might take for it to crush her if he found her snooping around. Probably much faster than it would take for him to stop and take in that she was not some common intruder or thief.

Aurora felt herself going a little light headed at the thought as she circled around Cloudjumper's sleeping form, looking anywhere for the deathsong egg. But it was only after several rounds that she actually saw the egg.

Nestled within the folds of Cloudjumper's wings, glimmering slightly, was the deathsong egg.

Now all she had to do was get the egg out without Cloudjumper waking up.

* * *

Aydrien was finally able to get away from Kara, after almost an hour of looking for some way to get the stubborn girl off of his hands. It was quite literally as close to the definition of Hell as Aydrien would dare to think of, just waiting for something to happen. Being followed and chased round and round the village by a girl he didn't even like, and all he could really do was wait for some sign or message.

But there was nothing. His mom hadn't returned yet, Lana, Avrak, Balder, and Hax were still out looking for her, and Aurora hadn't returned either.

And there was not a thing Aydrien could do about it but wait. And trying to keep away from Kara.

Fortunately, he had gotten a few moments of freedom, ducking into the shadow of the forge in order to get away. It probably wouldn't take long for Kara to find him again, but at least he would get a few moments of peace and quiet before-

"Hey, Aydrien, over here. We got something to show you"

Aydrien nearly jumped out of his boots at the sound of Hax's voice, further in the shadows between the building. And not only Hax was there, but Avrak, Balder, and Lana were too, all press against the wall in a row.

So much for a moment of peace and quiet.

"Must you guys seriously sneak up on me like that?" Aydrien hissed "And also... how long have you guys been here?"

"We just came in a few moments ago" Hax replied, completely ignoring the first question. "We saw you making your way over in this direction to get away from your girlfriend. So, here we are"

"Ok, first of all, Kara is not my girlfriend." Aydrien said "And I don't mean that like I say she isn't but she is, I mean it like she actually is literally not my girlfriend."

Hax seemed a little confused at Aydrien's word choice, but Avrak saw it as an opportunity to but in.

"Are you sure? Well, if she wasn't your girlfriend, then why was she-"

Thankfully, Lana was able to slap her hand over Avrak's mouth before he could finish the sentence.

"Never mind that" Lana said quickly "Aydrien, we found something you need to see. Get Titan."

"Umm, Lana, can't you just tell me what you saw? I think I might be missed if I leave for more than thirty seconds" Aydrien explained.

"Told you" Avrak said, pulling Lana's hand away from his mouth. "Girlfriend."

Everyone ignored him.

"No Aydrien" Lana said gravely. "We found our deathsong friend, but there is something else out there as well. We're not entirely sure what that something might be and we are hoping you could come help us find out. Please?"

Aydrien sighed. This day just kept getting better and better.

* * *

Aydrien felt bad about going against his mother and taking his dragon out to fly, but such a trip that the other teens were leading him on would have been a hell of a walk, and so he mentally filed it away with all the other things that he had done that his parents had told him not to do. After all, he was fifteen. Wasn't he allowed to have a some of those thing?

As it was, getting out of the village without being seen was a bit tricky, but soon the five teens were soaring free, following the mountain ridge along Berk to their destination. It didn't take too long to reach their destination, a small clearing right in the middle of the vast woods, one that was easy to when looking at it from above.

Aydrien couldn't see anything in the clearing from above, but Lana quickly explained that what they brought Aydrien here to show him was not in the clearing. After landing, they pushed their way through a newly created path in the foliage around the edge of the glade, nothing more than an area of trampled grass. Aydrien followed the others down that grassy trail, peering into the darkened canopy of twilight forest.

At the end of the path, Aydrien saw something he... wasn't expecting.

The dragon was long and snakelike, easily twice as long as Titan was from snout to tail, and covering in scales of light cyan that shimmered in the moonlight. It's head was shaped like that of a snake, and decorated with darker blue frills on either side. From its back, a row of long spines protruded out of its spine, and its wings were twin swirls of color spreading out behind it.

This was obviously a Deathsong, Aydrien thought. But that wasn't what he found to be so unexpected.

The deathsong was dead, and whatever had killed it had made messy job of it.

Cuts, dozens of fresh cuts, decorated the hide of the gigantic creature, and its shimmering, butterfly-like wings were little more than shreds of flesh. Patches of scales that had been torn clean off lay all around the corpse.

Aydrien suddenly felt sick to his stomach. It didn't matter that this particular dragon was supposedly so deadly. No dragon deserved to die as this one did.

"We...we wondered if...your mom did this" Lana stuttered, obviously having difficulty controlling her stomach, just like the other riders. All except for Balder, who still had that abstract, distant look he usually had.

Aydrien instantly shook his head.

"No, mom would never do this. She would ever...at least not like this..." Aydrien groped for some excuse. He actually was wondering if his mother had it in herself to kill a dragon, but he was almost certain that she hadn't killed this one. It was too messy a kill, with way to much pain inflicted on the dragon before it was killed, given the sheer number of laceration crisscrossing over its long body. No, this was not done by Astrid.

Aydrien swallowed.

"This can't have been done by my mother, She took out Salty and Frostfire to hunt for this dragon - two thunderdrums. And this" Aydrien gestured to the lacerated body, "was not done by two thunderdrums. I am positive about that."

"You're sure?" Asked Balder.

Aydrien was temporarily startled by the question from the normally quiet boy.

"Yes, I am sure, Balder" Aydrien snapped, a bit more harshly than he meant to. "What exactly has my mom done in the past few weeks that would make you think she would do something like _this?"_

"We're not accusing your mom of anything" Lana interrupted, stepping in between the two boys "something brought down that dragon, something that might still be on Berk. If that is the case, we had better get back to the village as soon as possible and warn someone. Also, we have to see how Aurora is doing."

Aydrien looked back to the corpse, then back to the surrounding teens and their dragons. Titan, in a rare show of open affection, was resting his snout gently on Aydrien's shoulder, sensing his rider's apparent distress over the situation.

Aydrien breathed deeply.

"Ok" He said, after several long moments "Lets head back. Before anyone notices we were gone hopefully."

* * *

Aurora as Aydrien and the rest of the gang swooped into the academy. As they flew in, Aydrien's eyes scoured over Aurora hopefully, but her back was turned towards the rest of the riders, and the deathsong egg was nowhere to be seen. The riders each led their dragons into their separate pens, and wihsed them good night, before going over to hear about Aurora's findings.

Aydrien was to approach her. But even as he approached, before he could even say anything, Aurora turned towards him. And at the same time, giving him a view of what she held in he arms.

"Aydrien" Aurora whispered, her voice barely audible "I think we may have a problem."

It was no cradled within Aurora's crossed arms. No, within Aurora's arms, curled up and slumbering contently, was a baby deathsong, its dark blue scales shimmering in the faint moonlight.

"You were right Aydrien. Cloudjumper was watching over the egg. Almost as soon as I got it out of the stables with it, it started hatching, so I rushed here, to the academy." Aurora explained, looking down at the small, sleeping form in her arms. "Did you guys find anything?"

"We did" Aydrien responded "Another deathsong, but it was an adult, and it was dead." Aydrien shivered a bit at the memory, even as Aurora's eyes widened a bit at the news.

"Was it... your mom?"

Avrak beat Aydrien to the response.

"No" Avrak said quickly "The wounds on it didn't match with the dragons she took with her. Anyways, what does matter is that this little guy" Avrak gestured to the deathsong hatchling "no longer has anyone to look after him."

"You mean, no one except for us." Hax piped in.

All faces turned towards him, and the arena was suddenly deathly quiet.

The silence stretched onward for seconds, and then those seconds became a minute, then two. Not one of the riders could think of some kind of response for that, either for or against it, for a long, long while. It was not the idea of simply training another dragon. Based on what they had heard from both Astrid and Valka earlier that day, this dragon was dangerous. Dangerous for Astrid, one of the most experienced riders in the world, to be afraid of. Dangerous enough for Valka, the very first know dragon rider, to consider killing it when it was no more than an egg. Looking at it from that perspective, the smartest thing to do would have been to simply take the hatchling far, far away from anyone it might hurt, and hope that it might survive on its own.

But Aydrien knew, just looking at that tiny little dragon, curled up in Aurora's arms, that he couldn't do that. Perhaps he was simply too ignorant to realize how much of a danger that little deathsong would eventually become, but he couldn't accuse someone of a crime they had not yet committed. No, he could not kill this dragon, directly or otherwise. Which means he was determined to take the chance.

Even if it meant deceiving his mom. And his dad. And his grandmother, and anyone else who might try to judge this little dragon based on what they believe it _might_ do.

"Hax is right. We have to take care of it." Aydrien blurted.

All faces turned towards him.

"Look guys, just hear me out. We're training to be dragon riders. But there is more to what we do than just riding dragons. Our job-our duty-it to help humans and dragons live together. Just because no one has ever trained a deathsong, and just because my mom believes it cannot be done, doesn't mean it isn't possible. Think about it. We have an opportunity to...to make a difference as _actual dragon riders._ To do what we are being trained to do." Aydrien paused to take a deep breath, then went on.

"I don't care if you guys don't want to help me. All I ask is that you guys don't say anything about this to anyone until we all agree to."

"Oh ya, of course, we won't help you" Avrak put in,"we'll just sit back and let you take all the credit for being the first person to ever train a deathsong." Avrak grinned, "I am in."

"Same here," said Aurora quickly.

And like that, one by one, the other teens agreed, the only one showing any reluctance to the idea was Balder. Aydrien noticed this, but didn;t think anything of it, attributing it to the boys seemingly natural shyness.

"Alright gang." Said Aydrien,"We need some place to take this little guy where no one from Berk is going to track him. Far enough away that no one will run into it, but close enough that we can visit often. And I think I might know just the place."

* * *

Nothing.

All day and most of the night of searching, and Astrid hadn't found any trace of the supposed deathsong.

She scoured Berk, flying over every area twice, back and forth for hours and hours. Her search was not necessarily as precise as it could have been, especially since she rode upon Frostfire rather than her own dragon Stormfly. And Frostfire, being a thunderdrum, was not half the tracker Stormfly was.

Unfortunately, it was too dangerous to take any dragon other than a thunderdrum out with this deathsong problem. And so she had found nothing.

The village was quiet now as Astrid walked home, despite the late meeting and the feasting and drinking that followed after. She was out later than she expected, getting carried away in her fruitless search, even long after the sun had set. She only quit when her exhaustion, as the well as the exhaustion of both Frostfire and Salty, forced her to head back home before they ended up falling out fo the sky together. Stubborn as she was, Astrid had almost fallen off Frostfire's back before she actually called it quits.

Apparently, someone had stayed up waiting for her to say good night.

As Astrid approached her home, Stormfly stirred from her pen built to the side of the house. She let out a soft squawk at the sight of her rider, straining to get as close to her rider as she could with the walls of her pen in the way.

Astrid smiled sadly.

"You know, you didn't have to wait for me girl" Astrid said, reaching through the bars of her pen to lay her hand on Stormfly's snout. "You should be getting some sleep."

Stormfly let out a soft growl, and Astrid was able to interpret the meaning easily enough.

"I know. I guess I have no right to tell you to go to sleep when I stay up this late huh?"

Stormfly cocked her head, and her silence was answer enough.

"Ya, I guess I might have overdone it. I'm sorry Stormfly. I just want to get this whole deathsong thing over with. But I promise that if I don;t find anything tomorrow, I'll give the order to let all the dragons out, ok?"

Stormfly warbled, trying to push her snout into Astrid's as best as she could. In truth, the Haddock's dragon stable was not much of a real obstacle to their dragons, especially given the fact that they were made of wood. They were instead more designed to keep people out that keep the dragons in. But Stormfly would stay in those stables, uncomplaining, if Astrid asked it of her, even though she hated it.

And Astrid hated making her do it.

"Oh what the heck" Astrid said, opening the lock on the stable door and tearing inside, pausing only to swing the stable door closed behind herself "I'm sorry you had to be locked in here all day. I just wanted you to be safe. Will you forgive me?"

Stormfly answered with a huge, slobbery dragon kiss to the face.

Astrid just laughed it off, wrapping her arms around the back of her dragons neck a hugging her as close as possible. Astrid could feel Stormfly curling around her, wrapping her long tail protectively around her rider. She could feel the steady heartbeat and warm breath as she leaned back against Stormfly's chest, letting herself relax against her best friends warm scales.

For both of them, it was just like old times. Just being with each other, simply for the sake of enjoying each other's company, something they didn't do nearly enough anymore. Not that they didn't spend time together, it's just that most of their time together was for working. Never just for... fun.

"Am I interrupting something?" came a voice from outside the stable, and Astrid turned to see Hiccup, a grin on his face as he leaned against the window of the stable.

"Yes. It's called girl-time," Said Astrid, tone of false irritation coloring her words. "Please tell me you didn't stay up waiting for me too."

"Well, yes, actually. Just wanted to make sure you got back safe" Hiccup said. Then his grin faded away "And I wanted to know if you found any sign of that deathsong?"

Astrid's smile also started to fade, though it didn't entirely disappear.

"I didn't find anything. I guess I might have overreacted a bit when I first found that egg this morning. If there were a deathsong on Berk, we would have known about it by now." Astrid collected herself with a breath, "Sorry for abandoning you to the meeting by yourself. How was it?"

Hiccup shrugged.

"Same as usual. Nothing ground-shaking, really. You would have hated it." Hiccup explained,"well, the kids are in bed. Are you coming in soon?"

"In a minute." Astrid replied "I actually have one more thi-"

"Mom dealt with the egg already, if that is what you were thinking about" Hiccup interrupted.

Astird's eyes narrowed slighly at that.

"Really? What do you mean when you say "dealt with it?"

Again, Hiccup shrugged.

"All she said was that it was in good hands. Asked me to make sure you weren't too worried about it," Hiccup's smile returned "She asked me to make sure you weren't to worried about it."

"Well then, I will be sure to thank her when I next see her," Astrid said, returning his grin. "You can head back inside, Hiccup. I'll be there in a minute."

"Alright." Hiccup said, turning back towards the house "I saved son dinner for you, if you are hungry. And don't stay out too late."

"Wow, listen to you" Astrid retorted, "your starting to sound like a parent."

Hiccup gave her one last smile before disappearing inside the house.

Astrid leaned back agianst Stormfly one more time, letting her worry and concerns of the day just flow from her in a deep, contented sigh.

"We'll work this all out Stormfly" Astrid said queitly, addressing her dragon but speakign mostly to herself,"We'll work this out."

Little did she know, however, that the Deathsong situation was now out of her hands.

* * *

 _Is it better to learn from your mistake, or to not make the mistake at all?_

 _It is a question I have often asked myself, and others as well, yet I feel no closer to an answer than when I just started asking. There is one thing that I find consistent in the answers I receive. And that is that everyone will say that tey did it the wrong way._

 _Someone who speaks of a mistake from experience will say it is better if they didn't have the experience. On the other hand, someone who never made the mistake will dwell on it. They probably try to repeat that situation in hopes of intentionally trying to make that mistake, but they will wonder if they had missed something in not having that experience._

 _Whatever the answer is, I guess I'm jsut more concerned with trying to find out whether or not my choices were mistakes or not._

 _In case of my latest one, I supposed I will soon find out_

 _-Aydrien Haddock, Rider of the Archipelago_

* * *

 **And there we have it. Hope you like it, and I will be getting right onto working on the next chapter**

 **Hopefully, I will talk to you all again soon. See ya!**

 **Review, follow and favorite and as always, have a good one!**

 **Next chapter: Sunlight, Moonlight**


	8. Moonlight

**I won't bore you guys about how sorry I am about how late this chapter is, because I know I have used it before. Just know that I really am trying to get them to you as fast as I can, while still keeping up with University work**

 **This chapter ended up going a lot longer than I anticipated, so I am spliting it up into two part Even so, this chapter is a long one.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

The next few weeks were as a scramble for the fledgling students of the Berk Dragon Academy as things gradually went back to normal. Or at least, regular. Things weren't quite the same after the Teens had made the decision to raise the baby deathsong for themselves. Their schedules had no less free time, and their workload was more intense.

They had taken the baby deathsong to a cove on the far side of Berk, far enough from the village that no one would run into it, but close enough for the riders to visit often without being too conspicuous about it.

And visit her they did.

They identified the little deathsong a female, shortly after they took it in, and eventually agreed upon the name Melody, though some of the riders were less than enthusiastic about the "girly" name. Next came the research, looking all over Berk for any scrap of information they could find on deathsong dragons. However, that search proved mostly fruitless, for even in the book of dragons, there was little information about deathsongs, and even less on deathsong hatchlings. Most of what they found only seemed to confirm just how dangerous deathsongs were. Not a particularly encouraging discovery.

When it came to actually taking care of Melody, things became more complicated. The teens would take turns going to visit her, only rarely going to see her as an entire group, so as not to arouse too much suspicion. Therefore, the teens each practiced their excuses as to why they had been gone an afternoon, or why they were late to class in the morning. Given that they tried to keep the visiting to when they had free time, it all seemed to be working out pretty well. Every day, the threat of Melody being discovered seemed more and more remote.

Of course, as was the way with dragon riders, raising their own Deathsong was not their only problem.

Avrak found days like these hardly bearable.

It was one of the days a Berkian would have called warm, though on an island that far north, warm was a relative term, even during the summer months. You could always find snow or ice somewhere on Berk, even if it was only on the mountain peak that dominated the center of the island. The Vikings inhabiting Berk had long since grown used to the sub-freezing norm, but also learned to enjoy those days where the sun brought some of its warmth down on that tiny island.

But Avrak hated that heat. His own home island, far north from the Isle of Berk, was colder than most people could tolerate, much less live in. Avrak's tribe had learned to do both, but being so used to the cold made them more sensitive to the heat.

And so Avrak was in a foul mood that too-hot morning as he trudged towards the Academy for class.

"Why does it always have to start so early?" Avrak complained to his dragon, ZIza, who trod along side him. "I mean, I barely even have time for breakfast."

Ziza just huffed in reply to that. Despite being a wooly howl, she didn't seem nearly as bothered by the heat as her rider did. In fact, she might actually have enjoyed it a bit if not for the fact that she had to listen to Avrak's morning complaints. If nothing else, they were regular.

By the time Avrak and Ziza had walked in, lessons had already started for the day.

The rest of the teens were already inside, each mounted on their respective dragon, arrayed before rows and rows of targets. Astrid and Stormfly were off to the side, directing each student to fire on different targets. The groups were arrayed in such a fashion that they were progressively further and further away from the students, making each shot more and more difficult to land properly.

Nothing like a little bit of target practice to start out the morning.

"Avrak," Astrid's voice came from the side of the arena, "nice to see you finally show up." Though her tone was outwardly friendly, there was more than a bit of anger and impatient sarcasm coloring it.

Avrak looked over to where Astrid stood by the wall, from where she could observe the other teens. Outwardly, her pose was relaxed and calm, seemingly at ease, but there was an unmistakable glint of anger in her eyes.

"I need to talk to you Avrak. Outside the arena. Now."

Despite himself, Avrak flinched slightly. The anger in Astrid's voice was not so concealed this time.

"This is your third day you have been late I the past few days- not including the day that you took off." Astrid scowled at Avrak. Though he was nearly as tall as she was, she gave the impression of looking down on him with only her eyes. She crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm not going to lie Avrak- a few years ago, I would have expelled students for that kind of negligence."

Avrak's eyes widened at that statement. It was not that he was trying intentionally skip classes or be late- he was aware of the looks Astrid had been giving him the past several days, but he didn't realize just how seriously his teacher was taking his tardiness.

Seeing no response forthcoming from Avrak, Astrid continued.

"Many people came to me asking for the training that you are now receiving, Avrak. So there better be a very, very good reason for why you are squandering it, or you can start packing your things."

Avrak's confusion turned to frustration, and then anger. And given the heat of that particular morning, Avrak was already in a bad mood. At Astrid's scolding, Avrak's temper snapped.

"Well, maybe I do sleep in. And maybe I do miss part of class. And maybe I find myself bored at those classes where I am learning nothing useful!" Avrak was aware of his voice rising, but he didn't care at that point. He had been building up a few weeks worth of frustration and anger, between his classes at the academy and taking care of Melody, and he was going to let it out now.

"You say I am squandering my opportunity? Well, maybe I just came to learn how to be a dragon rider. Maybe I couldn't care less about learning about dragons other than my own. What if I just want to be a dragon rider without being some kind of dragon… scientist. Or researcher. I care about learning about my own dragon, and so sorry if I don't care about half the things you are trying to teach me that I WILL PROBABLY NEVER FIND USEFUL!"

The silence that followed was deafening.

Avrak didn't back down in the face of Astrid's icy glare, though a voice in his head was screaming at him for being such an idiot. Not only had he offended his teacher, but he had quite possibly just lost his spot within the academy. And despite his earlier sentiments, that was…. not what he wanted. Or at least, he wasn't sure that was what he wanted. Despite the hours hard training and the heat had grown to like Berk. He had friends there.

Much more than he had had back with his own tribe.

The silence between them lasted for several more seconds, during which Avrak gleamed nothing from his teacher's expression. For all it revealed, she might as well have been carved from stone.

Second ticked by. Avrak felt a trickle of sweat roll down the back of his neck.

And finally, Astrid spoke. She didn't yell, or scream, or shout at him, but spoke calmly, quietly, slowly. And her voice was almost… deflated.

"Perhaps then it was my fault. I thought you were ready, and that you understood _why_ I was actually training you. You asked me to train you as a dragon rider, but do you really know what that means?"

Several moments of silence passed, and Avrak had no response to give. Astrid continued.

"You have achieved something few people have. Friendship with a dragon, and that friendship will change you, and how people see you, for the rest of your life. No matter where you go, people will react differently towards you because Ziza is by your side. The most important person you change with that relationship, though, is yourself."

"You have changed. You might not notice it, or even want it, but you have changed because of your friendship. You don't see dragons the same as you used to, do you?"

Avrak thought for a few moments, waiting to see if she would wait for an answer, or if she would just continue if he waited long enough.

In truth, Astrid's question had struck deeper than she could possibly have known. Before he met Ziza, Avrak… had wanted to be a dragon trapper.

Just as his father had been…

Avrak snapped back to reality, realizing that Astrid had been staring at him for several moments, waiting for his response. He shook his head.

If Astrid took any note of his hesitation, she did not show it.

"We see dragons as something more. As something… almost human. And because of that, you need to know how to help them and relate to them just as we would other humans." Astrid's hand moved up to absently stroke Stormfly's neck. "To do that, you have to know all you can know about them."

"That is why I train you as I do. That is why I tell you everything I know about every dragon I know of. And that is why you need to start taking this training more seriously. If you aren't responsible enough to make it to class on time, then you aren't responsible enough to be trusted with the knowledge I am trying to give you. It is your choice.

' _Aren't responsible enough'?_ Avrak thought, his temper flaring again. He could understand some chastisement after being late a few times, but to threaten him with expulsion and insult him in the same breath for that same crime was… was ludicrous! At least he might have gotten a warning that Astrid even _cared_ before today. From her reaction, Avrak guessed from previous days that she hardly cared about him being late!

Astrid watched silently, and Avrak suddenly realized that he was letting his emotions play a little much over his face. He quickly put on an impassive look, but he hardly thought it would make a difference at that point. Astrid had seen his reaction.

"Think about what I have said." Astrid turned away dismissively. She leaped up onto Stormfly's back, who immediately turned away and spread her wings. "We'll talk again in a few days."

"Wait, you're going to leave me like that" Avrak exclaimed. "You don't just say something like that and then run off like that! I haven't eve-"

"I'm sorry Avrak, but I have been waiting for you all morning so that I could speak to you. I should have already left, and now I am already going to be late."

"But-"

"This conversation" Astrid interrupted again, her authoritative tone easily overriding Avrak "is over. I will be back in a few days. I left instructions for each of you in the Academy." Her features softened.

"I don't want to expel you Avrak, but you have to take this more seriously. You have to _want_ to be a dragon rider. And to know what that really means."

And with that, before Avrak could even reply, Stormfly shot off into the air, leaving Avrak and Ziza standing outside the academy alone. Confused, frustrated, and hot.

The day wasn't much better.

* * *

For the most part, the teens were left alone within the academy, each to their own specific area of training. Astrid had left them each written instructions, though even without their teacher there, they weren't entirely unsupervised. Avrak could have sworn he had seen Aydrien's grandmother, Valka, prowling around outside the arena. Not blatantly so, but just enough so that she could make sure the teens were actually doing what they were supposed to be doing, rather than try to leave early or goof off.

Avrak's mood was too sullen for him to goof off that day.

Once again, Avrak found himself alone, but for ZIza, at the end of the day. The rest of the riders had gone over to the great hall for dinner, while Avrak promised to catch up in a bit, though he knew then that he wouldn't be joining them anytime soon.

Astrid's words echoed over and over in his head as he sat upon the cliffs overlooking the ocean with Ziza laying down beside him, her head resting on his crossed legs.

Avrak's hand stroked his dragon's head idly.

"Do you think I would make a real dragon rider, Ziza? I mean, not just someone who rides a dragon, but someone who goes around and _helps_ dragons, like Astrid said?" Avrak asked his dragon

In response, she only pushed her head against his chest, snuggling in closer to her rider.

"I mean, I like dragons and all, but do I- do we- want that? I guess I've just been looking out for myself and you for so long that I am not sure if learning to help others is… really my thing? Does that make sense?"

Ziza crooned, then snorted, a puff of frosty air escaping from her nostrils.

"Ya, you said it girl. Who cares what Astrid thinks. I'll be expelled before we become something we're not."

Ziza let out a trill of agreement.

"Come on girl. Let's head back."

Avrak stood up and stretched, even while Ziza yawned, arching her back in a long, cat-like stretch. Together they turned to leave.

But a flicker of movement caught Avrak's eye, and he snapped his gaze back out towards the sea. Though the movement brought his gaze almost directly in line with the descending sun, Avrak was still able to make out the shape of a tiny dragon, flying towards him and Ziza.

A green Terrible Terror, flapping towards him, and panting heavily. It's tongue lolled out of its mouth as it flew forwards weakly. Just as it was close enough to the land, it dropped to the ground, still panting as it lay on it's side, heaving for breath. Only then did Avrak notice the slip of paper tied around it's leg.

Avrak moved slowly towards the tiny dragon, not wanting to startle the poor thing. Over the past month, he had gotten used to seeing the little dragons carrying messages to and from Berk, or even from one person on Berk to another person on Berk. Evidently, though, this little guy had been doing a lot of flying today, to be so worn out.

Avrak crouched down and reached towards the terror, still moving slowly, but the tiny creature still gave no indication that it noticed him. He even placed on hand on the terrors side, supposedly a comforting gesture, but it still made no move to react.

Carefully, Avrak lifted the terror into his arms and unwrapped the note from around its leg. Whatever the message was, it must be urgent, for someone to have sent a terror flying so hard towards Berk. IT must be to someone specific, but evidently the little messenger didn't have quite enough strength to get it to whomever he needed to. So what was the harm in just taking a peek to see who the note was addressed to?

The red, wax seal broke easily enough, and before Avrak could stop himself, he began to read:

 _Talon_

 _I've received a plea for help from the Ocean Runner tribe. They claim to have a dragon problem. Two dragons, of an unknown species, are attacking their village day and night, and they asked me to deal with them. Normally, but I am the situation in the West has become worse, and I can't afford to leave just yet. I'm sorry ask on such short notice, but no one else was both close enough or available to get there quickly._

 _Good Luck_

 _Shade_

Avrak scanned over the note several more times, but there was no other indication of who it might be from, or who it might be to, other than a small, blue seal on the bottom of the letter, next to the final name. The names 'Talon' and 'Shade' nothing to him, though Avrak suspected that they might be alternate names, used to keep the identities of the writer and the receiver a secret, should the information be intercepted. Which it seems it had.

What caught his attention most was the mention of the Ocean Runner. Know well as a fishing village on the island of Shale, they were a quiet tribe, certainly one of the less warlike ones to be found.

It was also the island and tribe that Avrak called his home, most recently at least.

With the messenger terror now asleep at his feet, too exhausted to move, Avrak had no way of finding out who this 'Talon' person was who the message was for, but if his home was in trouble, then he couldn't wait or try to find out on his own, with no idea who to talk to.

He might have gone to Astrid for help, but with his teacher gone, and his home having a dragon problem.

Well, this is what he had been training for, right?

Avrak left to gather his things.

* * *

It was a long, bitterly chilling flight.

Shale was not a particularly long flight from Berk, but it had been evening when Avrak left, and his flight spanned the hours of twilight and the late into the night following, where the temperature dropped rapidly. Especially since Avrak was only going further north.

But he didn't. Avrak was born in a tribe that practically had ice in their veins instead of blood, given the centuries they had lived in the far northern waters of the Archipelago. And even if he did find himself cold, Ziza's fur and companionship would provide all the warmth he needed.

He didn't end up telling anyone where he was going, tat least not directly. He did leave a note on is bed telling anyone who came looking for him, but hopefully he would be back before people started to worry. A part of him wanted to say something to someone, anyone, but Avrak's instincts held him back. The name of the person the note had been sent to was a secret, for whatever reason, and Avrak felt that perhaps going around the information too brazenly.

And besides, if it turns out he did get in trouble for flying off on his own...

Well, it was easier to secure forgiveness than permission

These thoughts were passing through Avrak's head even as he came in sight of Shale.

It was not a large island, little more than a chunk of rock and ice reaching up out of the ocean, and the village perched on the side of it was even smaller. Only a few dozen buildings, all closely cloistered together, and a dock that held only half a dozen ships on a good day. There was snow and ice everywhere, and even as Avrak approached, he could see the team of people sent out every day after a big snow, using shovels and even plows to clear pathways through the snow.

"Alright girl" Avrak said to "The letter we got said there was a dragon problem, so they might be a bit scared of you if they see you from a distance, so how bout we land outside the village. I'll go in first and just make sure no one mistakes you for a wild dragon before you get close enough. Alright, girl?"

Ziza grumbled twice a sound Avrak had come to recognize as agreement, even if it did sound a little bit reluctant.

"Thanks girl. I kno-"

A scream interrupted Avrak mid-sentence, and Avrak's gaze snapped down to the village, where a woman he knew as Heladra stood, pointing up towards the sky and shrieking as if Ragnarok were being unleashed upon her.

It took Avrak a moment to realize that she wasn;t pointing at him and Ziza. It took another to see what she was actually pointing at.

A dragon, twice as big as Ziza, hurtling straight downwards towards the village.

It was like no dragon had ever seen, or even heard of. It was narrow and slender, built like an arrow or a spear, large wings wrapped tight around it's body in a steep dive that let it shoot downwards faster than a hunting seabird. It was very long, almost a hundred feet from its the tip of its tail to it's nose, which was sharpened to a point with a horn at the end. It's long, narrow claws were tucked up against its belly as it dove, and even as Avrak watched, the dragon's mouth opened to reveal jagged, yellowing fangs.

But the strangest part about the dragon was that it's entire body shone silvery white, like a descending shard of pure moonlight.

There were not many dragons that gave off their own light, and Avrak was certain he had never heard of this one, let alone seen it. This dragon was much too large to be a flightmare, certainly too large to be any species of fireworm, and...

...and none of that mattered right now, given that this dragon was hurtling straight towards Avrak's home island.

"Stop him, girl!" Avrak shouted, but he need not have bothered. Almost before Avrak finished shouting, Ziza was rocketing through the air towards the dragon, letting out a roar of challenge that was quickly followed by a blast of ice.

The other dragon seemed not to notice Ziza and Avrak hurtling towards it until the last possible second, and that didn't give it enough time to dodge Ziza's ice blast. The mixture of ice crystals and freezing wind smashed into the dragon's side, exploding in a flurry of white.

For all the effect it seemed to have, Avrak and Ziza might as well have thrown a wool blanket at it. The blast simply impacted to no apparent effect.

It did get the other dragons attention, though. Which might not have been his brightest idea, Avrak thought, even as the opposing dragon wheeled around, turning it's dive into an aerial charge that carried it towards him and Ziza at a terrifying speed.

Then it released it's counterattack.

Avrak clutched tightly to Ziza's fur coat as she simply dropped, letting gravity pull her out of the way of the large dragon, even as it opened its mouth and breathed forth a cloud of frost and ice, similar to the one Ziza had breathed only moments before. But Avrak was certain that, no matter how inured to cold he might be, if that blast hit him, he would probably end up as an icicle faster than he could say the word 'dragon.'

Despite, Ziza's dodge, Avrak could feel the intense, hideous fingers of aching cold from the proximity of the other dragon's blast as it rippled across the sky and his dragon let out a screech of pain as the blast clipped her right wing. Even being a wooly howl, covered in warm fur and able to survive absolutely freezing temperatures, was not enough to protect her from that blast. Rather, the chill of this dragons blast was enough to cause ice crystals to form on her wing, even if it only just struck for a bare instant that it struck.

Her wing contorted in frozen agony, Ziza's dive became a wild, uncontrolled plummet.

Avrak's world spun wildly over and over as they fell, even as he clutched at Ziza's saddle with all his might, and was forced to bury his face in her fur to avoid getting too dizzy or sick. For in the moments that he dared look up, he could make out little. The sky, the sea, and the ocean were all one vast, dark spinning blur flying past. There were only two things he could fixate upon. Ziza, his dragon, clutching her right wing to her side in agony, unable to fly, unable to do anything but fall. And the other dragon, its scales shining in all their magnificent silver glow, hurtling after then as they shot down, down, down.

"ZIZA!" Avrak yelled, both out of concern for is dragon fear for both of their lives.

Whether or not Ziza actually heard him over the rush of the wind, Avrak wouldn't a surge of effort and another screech of pain, Ziza's right wing shot open to full extension. Ice literally flew from her wing as it opened, along with more than a little blood, even as their wild spin began to slow.

Avrak realized just as they crashed into the ground.

The landing was a rough one, but Ziza's recovery, along with the thick layer of powdery snow, allowed for a safe landing. Ziza actually did her best to encourage a forward slide, the better to transfer the momentum of the slide so they wouldn't be hammered as hard. They ended up skidding a fair distance through that snow, about twenty feet at least, and stopped just short of slamming into a someone's house.

"Are you alright girl" Avrak exclaimed, somewhat panicked as the leaped from his saddle to inspect his dragons injuries. She rumble back weakly, and rolled onto her left side, letting him inspect her injured right wing.

It was a mess. The ice crystals of the other dragons breath had caused dozens of small cuts across the surface of the wing. And the flesh was cold, Avrak found as he laid his hand on Ziza's wing. She hadn't been frostbitten, thank Thor, but still, that over dragon must have had breath as cold Niflheim itself to blast a Wooly Howl out of the sky so easily.

And speaking of the other dragon...

There was a sound like distant thunder as their attacked landed, crunching the snow beneath itself. Avrak turned to see it standing in the plaza, its huge head not ten feet away and easily large enough to swallow Avrak in a single bite.

"If you want my dragon" Said Avrak, pulling out is harpoon from where it was strapped across Ziza's saddle "You gotta go through me first"

It's scales shone with cold radiance, reflecting off of the snow around it. Its eyes glittered like chips of ice, starting into Avrak's own, filled with...

Avrak blinked. Not anger. Or hatred. Or fear or nervousness or anything Avrak might have expected to see. There was... something else.

"What do you know?"

The dragon blinked once, then its eyes hardened once more. It hissed and read its head back, jaws opening wide-

-and jerked to the side as a gigantic spear lanced into its side, so large it could only have been launched from a ballista.

The Ocean Runner's came to defend their own.

Men and women came running out from the buildings surrounding the plaza, each man or woman boasting a shield and either a sword or a spear. They surrounded the dragon, their movements seemingly choreographed, so coordinated were they. The dragon t the middle of the tightening circle hissed, it's tail lashing back and forth. It's head snapped to and fro, but it was always just a bit too slow to catch anyone. And any time it turned its head, the others warriors in the circle would jab and prod at it. Mostly superficial wounds, but the dragon was quickly growing annoyed and enraged by them.

Which means, any second now it was going to-

With a roar of fury and frustration, the behemoth swept it's tail around, forcing Avrak's tribesmen back, then leaped into the sky, wings beating furiously beating to lift it's bulk up into the sky. Still bellowing it shot upwards, it's glow fading fast into the night sky.

Avrak felt the weight of all the gazes of the Ocean Runner tribe fall on him and Ziza.

"Ummm... hey everybody. Nice to see you all again?" Avrak said, lifting his hand in a hesitant wave.

No one seemed amused.

"Avrak!" came a voice from the crowd "Nice to see you again, though I didn't know you'd be back from the academy so quickly."

Avrak turned to see a familiar form striding towards him from out of the crowd.

"Uh, ya, hi Auntie. I actually heard there was a dragon problem." Avrak looked up into the sky "Though, I didn't it would be _that_ big a problem."

Hildegaard Thrana, or Auntie Hildegard to Avrak, smiled, though it was a grim expression.

"Well then, you got some explaining to do young man. We'll see what we can do for Ziza, and then we will talk."

* * *

"So let me be clear. After finding a who you did not was was for, or even who it was from, telling you we had a dragon problem. So you decided to come out here, in the middle of the night no less, and not tell anybody?"

Avrak grimaced.

"Well, for the record, I would have told my teacher, but she away."

Briger Helfast, chief of the Ocean Runners tribe, sighed.

He was not much to look at. He was without the bulky muscle and intimidating stature of many Viking chiefs, mostly due to the fact that the Ocean Runners were not a warrior tribe. He was short and stocky, well built, but more suited to wielding a fishing net than a sword.

Seated across from him in the islands mess hall, Avrak didn't find himself intimidated in the least.

"It sounded bad," Avrak said in a more serious tone of voice, pulling the letter he had found earlier out from his satchel. "And I guess I was kinda worried. Whoever sent this letter didn't want their identity known, or the identity of the person they were sending it to. So I... I guess I thought that the fewer people who knew about it, the better." Avrak slid the letter across the table to Briger.

The chief picked up the letter and unfolded it, eyes flicking over the writing as longs seconds passed. Avrak waited patiently, looking for any flicker of recognition in the Briger's eyes, but there was none.

"Well" he said finally, laying the scrap of parchment back on the table "I've never heard of anyone who calls themselves names like Shade or Talon, but there has been no one else on this island besides people from this tribe since the attack started. But the letter says that this 'Shade' character got word of it somehow."Which means there must be someone in the tribe who... sent for help? Without telling anyone?"

"Which means there must be someone in the tribe who... sent for help? Without telling anyone?"

The chief nodded

"Aye, it's a mystery. I just don't know how..." he trailed off thoughtfully, eyes unfocusing for a second "But that is of secondary importance. I will deal with finding out who it was , while you, on the other hand, need to go back to Berk. We can handle this dragon problem on our own, and you still have training to finish."

Avrak's eyes widened.

"What! But... this is exactly what I have been training _for._ I can help you-"

"I saw what your 'help' can do Avrak, and it seems to me like you are not ready." Briger interrupted "You need more training, evidently. We have handled dragons before without."

"Ya, by killing them" Avrak retorted "Give me another chance. I have learned plenty so far, and I am sure I can tame it. If I can just get close enough to it..."

"No Avrak" the chief repeated. "I am not going to risk anyone's lives more than I have to in this. You are going back to Berk first thing tomorrow morning, and that is final."

"Ya, well about that" Avrak replied "Ziza was injured during the fight, and she isn't able to fly again, at least for a few days. So no, I can't go back just yet. Healer's orders"

The chief's eyes narrowed. A long, tense silence followed.

"Very well. But I still want you away from those dragons. We _will_ handle them."

Avrak blinked. Then sighed.

"Fine. But if it-they- are still bothering you, let me ask my teacher to come and see what she can do. I'm su-"

"Avrak" Briger rumbled, rising out of his chair. "We will deal with it ourselves, and we will do it our way. I own enough favors to Berk already. We will deal with this, and you will be going back to Berk as soon as that lizard of yours can fly, assuming you aren't already going to be expelled for leaving without notice."

"And I want you to be very clear- stay away from the dragons that are terrorizing the village. _WE_ will deal with them!"

Avrak had no response to that. Normally, he was the one to have the last word, but this was his chief. There was no talking back to him the way he talked back to others, even Astrid.

"Now, go get some rest," the Chief said in a slightly softer voice, rising out of his chair and turning away from Avrak.

It was as clear a dismissal as Avrak had ever had, and he figured he would follow it. It was quite late after all, and Avrak was still a bit sore from his long flight back home.

And besides, he probably wasn't going to be listening to his chiefs orders for the next several days.

Whatever his chief said, Avrak was determined to prove that he could solve this problem. And hopefully, he wouldn't get himself killed doing so...

* * *

 _To Be Continued..._

 _What will happen when the other riders discover Avrak is missing?_

 _And how will Avrak deal with his tribes dragon problem?_

 _We will soon find out..._

* * *

 **Hope you guys enjoyed it. And thank you to everyone who leaves a review.**

 **Review, follow and favorite, and as always, have a good one.**


	9. Sunlight

**Grab those saddles. Unlock those stables. Get on your dragon and get ready to fly because... I'M BACK!**

 **But in all serious, I am so sorry I haven't been able to update recently, and now nearly a year has passes since the last update and I was left in the dust. Busy I may be, but I should have gotten this up way, way sooner.**

 **But I plan to do better in the future. You guys have all been so patient, and I really appreciate it. I want to make it up to you, and I promise that if this account is to die, it is a long way from it's last legs.**

 **Because here they be dragons. And dragons be ready to fly.**

 **Without further ado, let us continue our story...**

* * *

Aydrien loved the feeling of flying like this.

It was the early morning, that time where the sun was just starting to edge over the distant Eastern horizon. People were waking up, reluctantly leaving behind the warmth of their beds to breakfast before starting their chores of the day.

Of course, for an early riser such as Aydrien, this was the perfect time to take a quick flight. If nothing else, it was certainly enough to jolt him into wakefulness.

The cold, crisp air of Berk's early morning was enough for Aydrien's breath to come out in puffs of frost as he and Titan shot through the sky, circling wide around the solitary mountaintop that dominated the Isle of Berk.

He was going to see Melody.

Titan grumbled slightly, stretching his legs, wing and tail, even as he performed a quick spiral through the air. His jaw opened in a huge yawn.

"You know, you don't have to come every time." Said Aydrien, reaching forward to scratch his dragon behind the ear. "I'm not twisting your arm to make you come, so if you could stop acting like I forced you out of bed for this."

In response, the Shield Glider let out another yawn, even larger and more pronounced than the last one.

"I love you too, big guy." Aydrien responded sarcastically, scratching a bit harder.

After several minutes, the arrived at the clearing where they kept Melody, and, as usual, something was going wrong.

If there was one word that Aydrien could use to describe Melody, based on the few weeks he had known the infant deathsong, it was excitable. She never seemed to be able to settle down when the any of the teens came to check on her, always darting around excitedly, sniffing all over, and letting out a reedy little wail that Aydrien assumed was supposed to deepen into the dragons siren song when it got old enough. In her excitement, she had also apparently taught herself to get off the ground and fly very quickly, which made the task of keeping her in the cove quite the chore.

Not to mention she was growing. Fast. When she had first hatched, the tiny cyan deathsong had been about as long as Aydrien's arm. Now, two and a half weeks later, she was almost as long as he was tall, and her were deepening in color to a rich, ocean blue.

Certainly, she was quite the dragon to keep track of and under control, though this time, it wasn't Melody that was causing trouble this time.

As Titan crested over the edge of the cove, Aydrien was greeted with the sight of Hax and Aurora, hurtling round and round in great, wide circles around the edges of the cove. Given the way Aurora was screaming angry insults at Hax, and the way that he was pleading at the top of his lungs for mercy, Aurora was evidently trying to chase him down for some reason. In the middle of the cove, Melody stood perched on a boulder, and the poor thing was making herself dizzy trying to track the movements of the racing dragon riders, spinning round and round to keep her head turned the right way.

Off to the side, Lana watched the whole thing unfold with a bored expression, leaning casually against the wall of the valley, with Skylark next to her, who had to duck ever so often to avoid having either Nightsound or Sunflower crashing into her as they raced wildly round and round the cove.

"Do I even want to know how this started" Aydrien asked Lana as Titan set down beside her and Skylark.

"Probably not." Lana replied, not taking her eyes away from the scene in front of her. "Can't so much as raise a baby deathsong without someone getting involved in a fight to the death. What's new?"

Melody had apparently grown tired of watching Aurora and Hax's tussle, and seeing Aydrien land, leapt from her perch and glided over to him, chirping excitedly as she moved to rub up against his knee. She let out a soft trilling sound of contentment as Aydrien absently reached down a hand to stroke her side. The little deathsong's sides vibrated in pleasure.

"Nothing new for me. But… where are Avrak and Balder? I thought we were all meeting here today, with my mom gone and all. I can understand Avrak being late, but not Balder."

"Balder was already here" Lana responded "but he left to go make sure Avrak would get his lazy butt out of bed before noon. He shouldn't be too lo-"

"AYDRIEN, HELP ME! SHE IS GOING TO KILL ME!"

Aydrien turned to look over at where Aurora had Hax off of his dragon and pinned to the ground. One of Aurora's hands pulled back and clenched into a fist that would deliver Hax, quiet possible, a broken nose. Hax had his hands up and his face conveyed a look of absolute surrender, not to mention terror.

"Aurora, do you have to make him scream so loud? Some of us want to keep our ears intact" Aydrien said , not particularly concerned for Hax's well being. As much Hax seemed to infuriate the girl, Aydrien was fairly certain she wouldn't cause any permanent damage to him.

Fairly certain…

Aurora turned to face Aydrien, her face lighting up with a smile.

"Oh, good morning Aydrien. I didn't see you there. What's up?"

Aydrien shook his head, astounded at the girl's sudden shift in mood and expression.

"Not that much I guess. Just… what did Hax do this time?"

Aurora's eyes narrowed and her features hardened again as she turned to look back down at the poor boy.

"This little twerp" Aurora said, turning to face Hax again "better watch his mouth, or so help me, I will teach him to watch it!" grabbed Hax by the front of his shirt and hauled his face up to within a few inches of her own. "If you ever say something like that again, I swear I am going to-"

"Aurora!" Aydrien exclaimed, slightly exasperated. "What. Happened?"

This time, it was Hax who answered.

"I swear, I was just trying to pay her a compliment. I told her that she was a better fighter than most girls I knew, and then she started chasing me like she wanted to murder me."

Aydrien's gaze shifted back to Aurora.

"Call me crazy, Aurora" Aydrien said, the faintest edge of sarcasm colouring his tone "But I have never felt the need to clobber someone who just gave me an honest compliment."

"Oh, his compliment was anything but honest." Aurora retorted. "What he was implying was that girls don't make good fighters."

"What! How-"

"Shut your mouth Hax."

"But-"

"I said shut it, before I pummel you!"

Aydrien sighed.

Such conversations always seemed to end up this way.

It always seemed to end up this way. Though Hax wasn't the only one of the group who could rile up Aurora, it was usually his less than intelligent remarks that upset the easily provoked girl. And given the fact that Aurora usually answered perceived insults with her fists, such conflicts usually left Hax in a less than healthy state.

Which meant that it was usually up to Aydrien to break up the fights before Aurora got too violent.

Before Aydrien could make a move to intervene, however, a low swoosh of air signaled the return of Baldur and Krotr, landing with an earthshaking rattle near the shoreline of the pond.

The arrival of the rumblehorn was, miraculously, enough to stop the scuffle between Aurora and Hax. At least, for a few moments.

"Any luck?" Lana called out as Baldur slid down of Krotr.

"He wasn't there"

Lana frowned, and she put on an expression that might have been thoughtful or concerned, so Aydrien thought, and he could understand that. While Avrak was not always one to be on time for things, he also wasn't usually hard to find either.

Lana opened her mouth to say something, but stopped as Baldur held out his hand, a small piece of parchment clutched in his fingers.

"I found this on his bed." Baldur stated, his tone, as usual, showing a decisive lack of emotion. Whether that was a deliberate effort or the fact that he was just indifferent, Aydrien couldn't tell.

"It was quiet vague" Baldur continued, unrolling the small sheet "'Be back soon, don't come after me. If anyone asks, I got a message from home that I had to respond to. See you soon. Avrak"

"That's it." Lana almost snapped after several seconds pause, snatching the note out of Baldur's hands and turning it over and over, looking in vain for some message beyond the brief words Baldur had said to them. Aydrien crowded in to look over her shoulder, as well as Hax and Aurora, their scuffle forgotten, at least for the moment.

But there was nothing more on the note, much to Aydrien's frustration, and the frustration of the other teens.

It was Lana who broke the heavy silence.

"Well, I'm sure we got nothing to worry about. Obviously Avrak is a responsible individual who is definitely not going off to get into some kind of trouble."

The sarcasm in her voice was evident as she spun on her heel and stalked back towards where Skylark casually leaned against she wall of the cove.

"Well..." Aydrien began, and paused as Lana turned a glare his way, an expression Aydrien had never seen on her oft smiling face. Still, after his momentary pause, he continued.

"Lana, I'm not sure this is something we need to start panicking about. I mean, Avrak can take care of himself. And would he have told us if it was something we needed to know. And I don't know if it is our place to... interfere. If it is from home, then its probably just family business..."

Aydrien watched as the faces of his fellow students seemed to fall as he voiced his thoughts. It wasn't that they wanted Avrak to be in trouble, having to swoop in at the last second to save him and Ziza (which had happened a few times already on Berk), but they wanted an excuse to do something, anything, beyond their normal daily routines of training and lessons they were currently on. It had been a long while since Aydrien's mother had taken the group on any out trips that were a significant distance from Berk, and now, with their teacher gone, the fledgling riders found training even more boring.

They wanted some excitement, Aydrien realized, and he couldn't really say he disagreed with them on that point.

But he wasn't one to go against his parents wishes either.

"Avrak will probably be back in a few days anyways. And I doubt my mother would be thrilled to come back and find that we've all run off somewhere when we are supposed to be training. We can patrol around the island for a bit to see if he might have come back, but anything more would make it look like were just goofing off while my mom is away.

That seemed to mollify the group, but Aydrien didn't really take the response to heart. They were all thinking the same thing, but none of them wished to voice it, subconsciously awaiting for Aydrien's opinion to more strongly. Such was the way of the group, with each of them deferring to the son of the chief on the island they currently lived on.

Such was the privilege of station, one Aydrien certainly would be happy to do without, especially around his friends.

Their excitement diminished, the group began to split off and move towards their respective dragons. Evidently, with the shock of Avrak's sudden disappearance, the group was not in the mood to stay with the chipper and energetic Melody any longer than they needed to. After Melody was fed, they saddled up and took off, none of them speaking as they made their way back to the village.

Aydrien, wrapped up in his thoughts of Avrak as the rest of the group, didn't notice that Lana still had Avrak's note, clutched tightly in one hand as they flew.

* * *

Avrak woke to a sound that he hadn't heard recently, but one he was accustomed to, and it brought back memories of familiarity that was comforting.

The morning calls of the seabirds and seals mixing with the crashing of the waves upon Avrak's small home island.

Avrak started to stretch, sitting up in the was given for the night, then instantly regretted it as a sharp ache erupted across his back. Evidently, in the chaos of last night's battle, Avrak had ended twisting and turning more times than they had cared to count, even considering how brief the skirmish was. Avrak remembered back to the times when there had been lessons on proper form while riding, and how to position your body so midair twists and turns would not affect the rider as adversely.

He also remembered how he zoned out for most of those lessons, and made a mental note to pay more attention in the future.

The sun was beginning to stream through the windows of the room as Avrak changed out of his nightclothes and moved to the door of the small room. It was a room very familiar to him, the home he had spent three years growing from a stubborn, often careless child into a stubborn, slightly less careless young man.

This was the home of Hildegard, Avrak's... foster mother, for lack of better title. A mother to replace Avrak's true mother, whom he had never known.

She was already awake, Avrak realized, making his way down the stairs of the humble little house, already hard at work in doing everything she needed to sustain a home of herself and her three children, the oldest of which was no more than eleven year old. When Avrak had come into their lives, three yhears before, they had taken him in with smoothness and efficiency, integrating him as if he were simply a part of their family.

"Good morning" Hildegard greeted as Avrak plodded his way down the stairs. Briefly looking up from her work in slicing u bread for breakfast, the middle aged woman smiled at Avrak, as she had always done when he made his way down the stairs each morning. This time, however, that smile was tinged with a bit of amusement.

"Well, looks like someones started developing bed head while they've been away."

Hildegard chuckled at Avrak's uncomprehending expression as he stared for a few seconds, then angrily moved one hand up to flatten down his hair that had gotten stuck on end during the night. Evidently, he would need to cut it again soon.

"To early to form coherent sentences yet?" Hildegard continued in her teasing, and Avrak glared at her as he made his way over to the table and plopped down in one of the chairs surrounding the table that dominated the middle of the room, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"I'm fine." Avrak growled, though he was certainly anything but fine, on a day like this. Sure it was nice to be back, but the satisfaction he got from being home was... bittersweet, at best. Especially considering how very real the danger had become, the night before.

This was no bedtime story about a hero saving his village. This was deathly real.

Hildegard must have noticed Avrak's lack of cheer he commonly carried around, and so fell silent, humming to herself gently to herself as she went about her morning chores.

The tense quiet grew longer, stretching onward for a minute, then five, then ten. Still it stretched on as the sound of sizzling eggs pervaded the room. The sounds of the waking village also worked their way into the house, resonating footsteps crunching through the snow outside.

Finally, as Hildegard made her way to the table with a plateful of breakfast foods, Avrak spoke up.

"The message I got says there were two dragons that the village had problems with." He said, his voice a low monotone. "If that ice one from last night was one of them, where was the other one?"

Hildegard paused to consider the question, seemingly surprised at Avrak's choice of words after the long wait of silence.

"They never show up together." She began tentatively, placing the platter of food out on the table and taking a seat next to Avrak. "The one you saw always shows up at night, and the other one, the one you didn't see, only appears during the day. They look similar... the chief thinks they might be two related species. The one you didn't see is just as large as the one you did see, but its scales are gold instead of silver, and instead of spitting ice, it breaths fire that is hot to turn iron swords into slag in an instant."

The woman shivered at some memory, then continued.

"Between those two dragons, we've had no end of trouble over the past few weeks."

"And what did the village to to attract their attention?" Avrak asked "Are they looking for something that the tribe took? Did someone invade their territory?"

Hildegard shook her head.

"Nothing. We've been doing as little sailing as we can get away with, given that winter is closing in and we don't want anyone caught out in a storm. And we figured that if these dragons were migrating away form the cold, they would have moved on by now. And they don't even take any food with them when tey leave. They just show up, attack, and fly away before we can do any real damage to them."

Avrak digested the explanation with confusion. In his past few months he had spent on Berk, Avrak had learned much about dragon behavior. While the demeanor of any particular dragon could vary depending on species, they usually lived by a simple set of rules. Find food, find a place to live, find a mate. Stick with family, protect your group, and use your strength and natural weaponry to take what you needed. Dragons didn't simply destroy thing for sport.

Perhaps the two were young dragons, out staking new territory, but it seemed to much a coincidence that they would both show up at the same island, and both continued fighting for an island that was more trouble than it was worth, considering the tribe already inhabiting it.

On top of all that, the odds of two separate dragons happening upon the village at the same time was-

A roar ripped through the air outside, followed immediately by a scream, then another, and a chorus of shouts that made their way through the house and to Avrak's ears, causing him to jump out of his seat in fright. Hildegard, too, jumped with shock, then to get up the stair and get her children out of their beds.

"Avrak, get to the Hall, now! And don't even think about getting anywhere near that thing."

Avrak didn't need to be told what 'that thing' was, but giant, rampaging dragon or not, he couldn't go to the safety of the hall.

Not while Ziza was lounging near the healer's hut, in the exact opposite direction of the Hall.

Things like that always seemed to work out that way.

* * *

Once again, the whole village was plunged into chaos, though this time people were actually able to see where they were going in the early morning light. Even as Avrak walked out the front door, he was almost trampled by a large warrior, Brakk by the name, hurtling down towards the docks, shield and spear in hand. Avrak managed to lean back, just out of the way, then sprinted in down towards the house of Helena the Healer.

While Avrak did not actually see the dragon, the sense of it surrounded him like that of a pursuing predator. He could hear the roar of the beast, a sound so load it shook the ground beneath Avrak's feet, and temporarily blocked out all other sound from his ears. The snap of bowstrings and hurled spears hissing through the air and cracking against scales provided a constant buzz, a low steady undertone to contrast the screams and shouts of the panicked tribe. Wrenching wood and crackling flame sounded from the dock area, which was fortunately not in the direction Avrak was running.

Avrak nearly tripped several times, weaving his way through the crowd as quickly as he could hindering anyone, which proved to be much slower than he might have liked. But, as it turned out, its wasn't only him that was going towards his dragon, but his dragon was coming towards him.

Avrak saw the divide in the crowd before he saw his dragon, rushing towards him with hardly a care for the people who were frantically leaping out of her way as she bulled her way towards hr rider. Injured as she may have been on the wing, her legs certainly worked just fine.

And so Avrak was nearly crushed as Ziza came to a skidding stop right in front of him, throwing up dirt and snow as she dug in to the ground to stop herself from crushing him.

Fortunately, the panicked crowd kept the presence of mind not to strike out at her.

"Ziza!" Avrak called happily, throwing his arms around his dragon neck. She crooned into his hug, nuzzling his chest gently before pulling away, moving towards his side so that he could climb into her saddle. Avrak looked doubtfully at Ziza, and then towards her injured wing, wrapped in a thing splint.

"Ziza, you can't fly yet, and the chief wants us to stay out of this." Avrak said gently as he could, though he doubted his stubborn dragon was going to settle with being left out of any fight.

Still she waited, motioning for Avrak to hop on.

Avrak, who had argued against his chief's decision before, and who could never stay out of a fight raging just within earshot, leapt onto his dragons back.

"Just be careful girl" Avrak cautioned, and he barely got the words out before Ziza leaped forwards.

Bounding from rooftop to rooftop was a tricky process, given that Ziza had onyl one good wing to use, but it got them out of the way of the crowds, who were starting to grow thinner as more and more made their way to the safety of the Hall. They also got a decent vantage point, and in doing so, they caught their first glimpse at the second dragon to be plaguing the village.

Hildegard was not exaggerating when she had said the dragon that attacked during the day looked similar to the one that attacked at night. In fact, it might have been a twin of the other save for the fact that it was covered in bright golden scales that rippled in the sunlight, a sharp contrast to the silvery white ones that the other had. It hovered over the docks, weaving its way through the storm of arrows and the occasional catapult stone that came hurtling towards it. In truth, the few projectiles that actually struck it seemed to do little more than annoy the behemoth, and even in that, it didn't seem to be paying any attention to the weapons. Swinging its head left ad right, its eyes scoured over the docks, even one point pausing to sniff at the air.

It barely even stopped to retaliate, though when it did, it spit out a stream of fire that blanketed the docks, forcing men back.

But not killing them. The sweep of flame was not concentrated enough to seriously burn anyone, but it did by the behemoth time. Time enough to look for something.

Avrak watched as it lifted itself further, its gaze sweeping over and over the village.

It's gaze zeroed in on the Hall, and, after taking in another deep sniff, it shot towards the huge structure.

Avrak didn't have time to call out to Ziza, for she was already moving, tearing across the rooftops as fast as she could. Despite her one injured wing, she still made good ground.

Still, her adversary, moving on giant wings, moved even faster.

People still not within the safety of the Hall scattered in all directions to get out of the way of the charging behemoth, completely ignored them in its pursuit. Its sole focus seemed to be on the giant structure of the tribe, and it hurtled towards it with single-minded intensity, ignoring the few scattered missiles that came towards it. There was no Ziza and Avrak were getting there in time to stop it, or even slow it.

The dragon continued to fly, seeming as if it meant to smash right through the door!

 _BANG!_

A flash of super-heated air and flame erupted across the titan's side, and its single-minded focus seemed to be shattered. Something shot past it, a white blur moving at tremendous speed, swooping around to the other side before launching another blast. Avrak blinked several times, having to wait until the fast moving figure stopped before getting a good look at it.

It was Skylark, Lana's dragon. And there was Lana, perched on her back.

The behemoth spun around to snap at the Windwalker, but Skylark was too quick once again, spiraling out of reach just yards ahead of the massive jaws. She twirled under the belly of the gold dragon, then shot up from the other side, hurtling higher and higher into the air, an obvious attempt to get it away from the Hall.

But just a tad to far. As soon as Skylark moved to far out of reach, the gold dragon turned its attention back towards the hall, spinning its serpentine body back towards the giant doors.

Skylark turned for another dive-bombing run, desperate to keep the titan's attention occupied, but this time, it was ready for her. As soon as Skylark lined up and hurtled down once again, the gold dragon opened wide its jaws took in a deep breath.

Moving so fast, Skylark couldn't move from her course in time to avoid the blast.

With she didn't have to, for Ziza, who had been closing the distance swiftly, was in range for a blast of ice, which struck the gold dragon right in the jaw. It didn't have enough force to really hurt the beast, but it did force its aim of, enough that Skylark could scrape by with a swift twirl. Spiraling back around, she moved further off, getting to a safe distance to dive again.

Which left Ziza and Avrak to deal with the giant beast.

Avrak quickly found out that the only way for him and Ziza to "fight" this dragon was to avoid it as long as possible, which Avrak doubted she could do for long. The gold dragon was simply too large, and given how last nights attack worked out, Avrak doubted he could even hurt something of that size. And it would only take a single hit from the massive dragon to crush them.

Even with its injured shoulder, Avrak noted, a recent wound it seemed to a have aquired, a massive spear wound.

Or a... ballista bolt.

Avrak's mind whirled, flying back in time to the night before. Hadn't the other dragon also had a wound like that? And in the exact same place?

No. There was no way...

The tremendous roar of the titan brought Avrak back to the present, even as Ziza leaped to avoid a scything tail strike that smashed a house behind them to mere kindling.

The roar of frustration reach a higher pitch as Skylark blasted it once again, though there was little visible damage from the dozens of hits that she had hammered into it. One more time, the behemoth turned, letting loose a tremendous blast of flame. Easily anticipating the blast, dodged to the side, and in the wake of the flame, Avrak saw Lana, perched on her dragons back, lifting a bow, aiming directly into the dragons opened maw.

She let loose, and the arrow lanced for, sticking cleanly into the dragon's gum.

Contrary to Avrak's expectations, the dragon did not go berserk at the small yet obviously painful wound. Instead, it seemed to sag, its eyelids drooping in sudden exhaustion. Obviously fighting it, the dragon growled, long and low, gathering its claws beneath it for one more push.

Then it fell with a crash, eyes still open, but evidently unable to move.

"Seems like you bit of a bit more than you could chew eh?" Lana said in a light-hearted tone, even as Skylark alighted Ziza.

"And how on earth did you know how to find me, again? And how did you just happen to know that I needed help? Which I actually didn't, by the way. And what on earth did you hit that guy with?"

Lana held up a note, the same one Avrak had left to tell everyone that he was going. "Dragons track by scent, you know, and this note had your sent on it. Plus, I can read a map. And as for that big guy." Lana gestured to the paralyzed dragon "Lets just say I won't be getting another arrow like that for a while. That kind of venom is very hard to come by."

People were beginning to stream out of the Hall, though none dared to approach the large dragon. None, save for one.

Briger, the chief, approached axe in hand.

"I told you to stay out of this, Avrak." The chief said, still moving towards the prone dragon. "But it seems you and your friend did prove to be useful after all."

As the chief hefted his axe, Avrak leaped off Ziza's back and ran forward, imposing himself between the chief and the large dragon.

"No, please, you can;t just kill this dragon."

"Out of my way, boy. I have to put the safety of this village first, and until this dragon and the other one are dead, the village cannot be safe. Now stand aside."

"First of all, its not two dragons" Avrak replied. "Its one dragon, one that can change its color and breath fire and ice. Look, that wound on its shoulder is in the same place the other got last night. They are one and the same. And secondly, it's not just attacking for no reason. I don't know why it did attack, but if you give me some time.

"NO!" The chief bellowed, moving right up to Avrak, their noses only inches apart. "Even if what you are saying is true, I am not going to risk my entire village for the sake of ONE DRAGON! Now. Stand. Aside."

Avrak felt Ziza and Skylark moving up to stand behind him, and Lana standing beside him, each lending him silent support. He planted his feet firmly, not moving an inch.

Briger opened his mouth, porbably to give some order to attack. But before he could get the words out, someone else spoke.

"I would listen to the boy, Briger. He's much more experienced in the matter then you are."

Avrak turned in time to see, of all people, Astrid, drifting down to land lightly on Stormfly to land next to Avrak and Lana. To say the two students were startled at their teacher's appearance would have been an understatement.

"This day just keeps getting better and better" Avrak whispered to himself.

If Avrak and Lana were surprised to see their teacher, then Briger was completely taken aback. He stared dumbfounded at Astrid for several long seconds as she approached him. As he regained his composure, a wide grin erupted across his face.

"Mrs. Haddock, what a pleasure it is to see you, but as you can see, we have this situation well unde-"

The rest of the chief's words were lost as Astrid's fist smashed into his face.

Instantly, a dozen men rushed up to stand beside their chief, who reeled from the blow, and just as many weapons were pointed Astrid's way.

"Hold back your men, Briger. I'm here for you and what you have, not for them."

"For me?" The chief asked incredulously. "Good lady, I don't know what you could possibly-"

"Oh, I think you do." Astrid interrupted, her voice as cold as ice. "Eclipse here" she gestured to the comatose dragon behind her, "has never attacked a village in her entire life, and wouldn't have done so. Not unless you hadn't taken something from her."

Astrid held out her hand expectantly, ignoring all of the weapons pointed in her direction. She just kept staring at Briger.

"You are mistaken, my lady." Said Bridger, backing away from the dangerous woman. "I have no idea what-"

"Don't. Lie. To. Me" Astrid interrupted again. "I know you have Eclipse's egg, and I know who sold it to you. If you wish for your tribe to survive, then hand it over."

"And now you threaten me on my own island?" Bridger retorted, beginning to regain his composure, and an angry edge made its way into his voice.

"I'm not threatening you, for I won't be the one to destroy you." Astrid replied, not backing down an inch. Indeed, her expression remained cold as ice, her unblinking stare boring into Bridger ceaselessly.

A long, long moment of silence past, an uncomfortable moment for Avrak. If it did come to a fight, who would Avrak side with? His chief, or his teacher? On one hand, Avrak was angry at Astrid for threatening his chief, and it was her who instigated the fight. Not to mention that if there was a fight, she probably stood no real chance against a whole village of warriors defending their chief, even with Stormfly helping her.

On the other hand... what if Astrid was telling the truth, and the dragon now lying comatose on the ground behind her was just trying to retrieve it's egg? As far as Avrak knew, Astrid had never lied to him, and though he had only known her for a couple of months, he had come to trust her, without reserve. Moreover, Avrak could tell from the intensity in Astrid's eyes that this was no lie. She was deathly serious, more serious than Avrak had ever seen her.

Therefore, either Astrid was unknowingly mistaken, or Bridger was lying.

The silent moment stretched on. Some of Avrak's tribesman shifted nervously, even as Avrak himself felt sweat beading on the back of his neck as the seconds ticked by. Astrid never so much as flinched, and to Avrak, she seemed as if she might have been made of stone, her gaze locked with Briger's.

And how Avrak's chief melted under that glare. Avrak could have sworn he saw Briger shivering in the face of Astrid's stare.

"Ok, ok, I admit it." Briger practically sobbed "I did it, I took the egg. They didn't give me any choice, I swear. I took it-"

"Shut up" Astrid hissed. Suddenly, the woman wheeled on Avrak, who had to force himself to not to back away in the face of that sudden glare.

"You" Astrid growled "and you" she continued, turning to Lana "are heading back to Berk. I've got enough to deal with right now without chasing after my students."

Astrid was already turning away before Avrak got his response out of his mouth.

"Wait." Avrak said, then nearly stepped back from the sheer intensity of Astrid's gaze as her eyes locked with his. There was something more there, something Avrak couldn't quite discern, something that had to do with something outside the current situation.

Avrak swallowed.

"Ziza can't fly yet. Her wing was injured last night, and she won't be able to fly for a few days, at least."

The anger seemed to bleed out of Astrid over the next several seconds, her expression softening. She took several deep breaths, and Avrak got the impression that she was fighting some inner turmoil, for he had never seen her so visibly have to calm herself before. She was always in control, always calm, always composed.

Until now.

"You and Ziza will come with me to deliver Ziza back home, Avrak" Astrid said, her voice low and hard. "And then we will head back to Berk, and you will say nothing of this to anyone, especially the other students. Do you understand?"

The last few word carried a note of deadly serious warning, and Avrak didn't push his teacher any further. He nodded meekly.

"And you" Astrid said, turning back to look at Lana and Skylark "will be heading back to Berk now. Tomorrow morning, you will go back to the Academy and wait there until I get back. Then I will decide on punishment for you two."

Bowing her head meekly, Lana withered under her teachers anger.

"Briger" Astrid said, sounding even more menacing than before. "Were done here."

* * *

All in all, if could have gone off a lot worse.

Getting the massive dragon (Eclipse, Astrid called him) aboard a boat and out to sea was definitely a chore, requiring more than a dozen strong men to move the sedated beast. Fortunately, the ride to Eclipse's home hand't been too long (though some of the crew worried that the huge dragons weight would capsize the boat), and by the time they arrived on the small ice ball of an island, Eclipse was starting to come to. At first, he seemed furious, but Astrid seemed able to calm him with a few words and a gentle touch, assuring him that 'it was all going to be ok.'

Avrak moved through it all in a daze. It was a quick, sad parting with his family, with things moving too fast for him to have gotten the chance to properly say hello, let alone say goodbye. He went through the motions of helping load eclipse, guiding Ziza onto the ship, helping the crew steer, getting onto land, checking up on Ziza, and-

And on. Things happened too fast for him to think about them.

Astrid was very quite throughout the whole of it, but at least she seemed to have blown off whatever steam she needed to and was more back to her normal self, if a bit quieter than usual. She didn't talk to Avrak the whole way to Eclipse's island, nor the trip back to Berk the following morning, save for a few scattered remarks. More than anything, she seemed distant, her mind off in another place, for Avrak caught her staring blankly off to the west several times, gazing at nothing, but her eyes reflecting her thoughts.

Avrak let it be. He'd already caused enough trouble in his teachers eyes to go prying into some private business.

Ziza seemed to be cheerier, which seemed to be the one thing that was looking up at that time for Avrak. Not being able to fly quite yet, she burn her energy off in the hold of the ship, sometimes leaping on boxes, tracking down stray rats or... chasing her own tail? Avrak knew his dragon was a bit crazier than most, but this was new, even for her.

All in all, the trip back to Berk was a whirlwind of activity, one that Avrak's thoughts seemed barely able to keep up with...

* * *

Astrid paced back and forth across the breadth of the Dragon Academy, her soft boots making barely a whisper of sound of the stone. Her face was expressionless, but her demeanor seemed ice cold, an anger that was visible in every step and every turn.

Before her stood Avrak and Lana, with their dragons. Behind her stood Stormfly, seemingly calm and placid, but watching the students intently.

"So let me get this straight." Astrid started "You ran off home with the intent to fight off some dragon that your whole village was unable to deal with, got your dragon injured, and almost got both you and her killed, all because of some anonymous letter you happened to come across that was not addressed to you."

Avrak's cheeks turned fiery red.

Well... yes. I guess that was how it happened, but you're making it sound worse then it was."

Astrid rubbed the bridge of her nose, letting out an exasperated sigh, which conveyed a great deal of weariness. Avrak stayed silent, guessing that their wasn't too much to be said to improve the situation. Beside him, Lana was equally tense, waiting for Astrid's verdict.

The only real comforting factor was Stormfly. Apparently whatever stress her rider was experiencing, the nadder was unaffected by it. Avrak doubted that Stormfly would be so calm if her rider were actually angry, as close as the two were. That if nothing else, gave something for Avrak to cling to.

"What am I even going to do with you four..." Astrid said, so quietly that Avrak almost missed it. "I don't... just..."

Another sigh.

"I'm sorry" Astrid said finally. "It's been a long couple of days. I guess I can't say I blame you for wanting to protect your home , no matter how reckless a decision that might have been."

"But" Astrid continued "no matter how good your intentions might have been, I cannot let either of you go unpunished. You're both grounded for several days."

Avrak caught himself between a sigh of relief and a groan of frustration, and he could practically feel Lana relaxing off to the side. On one hand, they weren't being kicked out of the academy, a distinct fear that had been lurking in both of their minds since they had come back to Berk. Given how rare an honor it was to be accepted into the academy in the first place, it was quite a relief that they weren't so easily gotten rid of.

On the other hand, being grounded was no picnic. In addition to not flying for several days, such limitation usually left one with lots of time on their hands, and if there was one thing Astrid was skilled at, it was finding chores for her students with too much time on their hands.

I was going to be a rough couple of days.

"And this" Astrid continued, pulling out the note Avrak had a acquired, the one telling him of his villages plight, "stays between us, alright. As far as anyone is concerned, you were sent on an errand for me. Do I make myself clear?"

Avrak nodded his head solemnly.

"Yes ma am" Lana said, the piped in "just one question. The note that Avrak found, it was for someone called Talon. Do you know who that is?"

Avrak shot a glance at her out of the corner of his eye, afraid that such a questions was more likely to make Astrid angry than get answers, given that it was just reminding her of what they had done. In truth, Avrak had forgotten, in his excitement over the past few days, that the letter telling about his island hadn't been addressed to him.

"If you must know" Astrid said slowly, seemingly taken a bit aback at the question "Talon's not a name, just a title. It won't mean anything to most of the people here, least of all you two."

There was no sense of anger in her voice. Indeed, it seemed almost pleading. Concerned even.

"I...see" Lana said tentatively.

"I pray you don't. Some information is more trouble than its worth" Astrid said absently. "You may head back to your beds." You've both earned it."

* * *

Astrid watched the Avrak and Lana lead their dragons out of the academy, waiting to be sure they were gone.

When she could no longer hear their footsteps, she all but collapsed against Stormfly, letting the dragon support her wait as she drank in a moment of relaxation. Stormfly chirped, nuzzling at Astrid, stretching her wing to cover her.

 _Gods, this is going to kill me someday._ Astrid thought, letting her eyelids close. While she had put up a good front for the kids, she was in truth utterly exhausted. In the last several days, she had felt like she had travelled the breadth of the entire Archipelago, flying circles from one island to another in a wild chase of several rogue dragons, and even after it all, she had only managed to catch one of them. It was only after capturing one that she discovered that this was not a random event.

Someone set these dragons loose to attack people, and that someone, whomever they were, was very good at covering their tracks.

Happening upon Eclipse, Avrak, and Lana was more by accident then design, having followed the culprit's trail to Avrak's home island, but the mysterious criminal was already gone. Too far, and she and Stormfly needed rest.

"Interesting to see Lana was the one to follow Avrak out all that way, hey girl?" Astrid noted absentmindedly "Didn't think Skylark could track that far. Guess we'll have to watch those two in the future. Make sure they don't go... running after each other."

A smile creased Astrid's lips. She had best get back home, before Hiccup got too worried.

She had a feeling she would need her rest in the days to come.

* * *

 **And there we go. Mysterious? Yes. I intentionally left some things opened ended and not fully explained, both in the interest of length as well as knowing they will be explained in later chapters. Don't worry, all will become clear in time.**

 **Again thank you so much for your patience and support. It is what got this story back on its feet, and with your guy's help, I plan to keep it that way.**

 **I also realize that there have been a lot of questions between the last chapter and this one, and so while I'm writing the next chapter, I will make an entry answering all the questions I have received over that time, plus any additional questions you guys want to submit. Of course, if you just want to write about how much you hate me for not updating for so long, I have your answer write now: I deserve that hate, I'm very, very sorry, and I will try my very best to do better in the future.**

 **Thank you all, and I will see you all again soon.**

 **Stormdragonrider out**


	10. Discontinued for now

**Hello Peeps**

 **Do to my increasingly busy schedule and several recent events, I will be unable to continue the Riders of the Archipelago Story. I know I said I would try harder after I hadn't posted for nearly a year, but I just don't have the time to do the writing on top of everything else I have going on. This style of story definitely adds to the complexity and amount of time it consumes, and at the moment I just carry it all.**

 **I'm sorry I'm unable to finish this story, but I may be able to continue again in the future, or more likely, do some one-shots when I get the urge. I still love the fandom, and will try to keep connected.**

 **Thanks for supporting me guys, and I look forward to the time I will write to you all again.**

 **Stormdragonrider**


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